Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Riyad Mansour
The
Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations (UN) says the Tel Aviv
regime is harvesting the organs of Palestinians killed in clashes with
Israeli forces in the occupied territories.
Riyad Mansour
said in a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday that
the bodies of the Palestinians killed by Israeli forces are “returned
with missing corneas and other organs, further confirming past reports
about organ harvesting by the occupying power.”
“A medical
examination conducted on bodies of Palestinians returned after they were
killed by the occupying power found that they were missing organs,”
Mansour wrote in the letter.
The Palestinian envoy further
protested Israel’s “persistent aggression against the Palestinian
people” over the past month and the regime’s “insistence on use of
violent force and oppressive measures.”
The issue of organ theft by Israel was first brought to the fore in a report published by Sweden’s most highly-circulated daily Aftonbladet in 2009.
US daily The New York Times also said in an August 2014 report that transplant brokers in Israel have pocketed enormous sums of money. Based on the Times analysis of major organ trafficking cases since 2000, Israelis have played a ‘disproportionate role’ in organ trafficking.
The
Palestinians whom Mansour was referring to were killed amid tensions in
the occupied territories, which have dramatically escalated in recent
weeks. This
file photo shows an Israeli soldier checking the identity card of a
Palestinian woman crossing the Kalandia checkpoint between al-Quds
(Jerusalem) and the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah. (Photo by AP)
The
Israeli regime’s imposition of restrictions in August on the entry of
Palestinian worshipers to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds
(Jerusalem) has become the lightning rod for the surge of recent
confrontations.
According to the latest figures by the Palestinian
Health Ministry, at least 74 Palestinians have lost their lives at the
hands of Israeli forces since the beginning of October. At least 11
Israelis have also been killed during that period.
The bodies of
the Palestinian victims are most often held in Israeli custody for long
periods of time before they are returned to relatives. ‘Support for Israel in US to be affected’
Meanwhile,
William Spring, a human rights activist from London said in an
interview with Press TV on Thursday that the revelation will “deal a
terrible blow” Israel, particularly among its American supporters.
Referring
to the supporters of Israel in the US as “Christian-Zionists,” the
commentator said that despite all their enthusiasm for the Israeli
regime, they are against such measures as experiments on fetuses,
abortion or harvesting organs.
“I can see a great defection and a great falling away of Christian-Zionists, who have supported Israel up to the now,” he said.
NY organ trafficker admits buying kidneys in Israel for $10,000... and selling them in U.S. for $120,000
First ever U.S. federal conviction for organ trafficking
His lawyers claimed he was providing life-saving service
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2054382/Organ-trafficker-admits-buying-Israeli-kidneys-10-000-selling-U-S-120-000.html Lawyers for a man who pleaded guilty
Thursday in the first ever federal conviction for illegal organ
trafficking say he was performing life-saving services for severely ill
people. Levy Izhak
Rosenbaum, from New York, admitted in a Trenton federal court to
brokering three illegal kidney transplants for desperate New
Jersey-based customers in exchange for payments of $120,000 or more. He also pleaded guilty to a conspiracy count for brokering an illegal kidney sale.
Convicted trafficker: Levy Izhak Rosenbaum , 60, before entering the courthouse in Trenton, New Jersey, on Thursday
Attorneys Ronald Kleinberg and Richard Finkel say Rosenbaum never solicited clients. He simply agreed to help desperately ill people by finding them kidney donors, they said. The
lawyers claim the surgeries occurred in prestigious American hospitals
and were performed by experienced transplant experts. They did not, however, name the hospitals involved, the Associated Press reports.
This may be a first: a television ad campaign in a U.S. state
capitol appealing to someone to stop murdering human beings who have, in
most cases, already been born.
A new 15-second television ad, a variation on one that’s aired in Las
Vegas near Creech Air Force Base, is debuting this week in Sacramento,
Calif. Take a look:
The ad was produced by KnowDrones.com, and is cosponsored by Veterans
for Peace/Sacramento, and Veterans Democratic Club of Sacramento. It is
airing on CNN, FoxNews and other networks starting Tuesday in the Sacramento/Yuba City area, near Beale Air Force Base.
Producers and promoters of the ad campaign have planned a press
briefing at 8:30 a.m. PT on Tuesday, March 31, at the main gate to Beale
Air Force Base. The ad’s appeal for pilots to “Refuse to Fly,” they
say, “is aimed at drone pilots, sensor operators, support personnel and
their families as well as the general public.”
While killing people with drones by the thousands has become so routine that elite lawyers argue
for making “wartime” permanent, and the United States is selling armed
drones to nations around the world without apparently the slightest
consideration that any undesired consequences are possible, the reality
of what is happening is rarely seen in U.S. media. Comcast cable has
decided that the advertisement above cannot be shown before 10:00 p.m.
because it shows a glimpse of what “targeted drones strikes” do.
Comcast is allowing the version below to air at all hours as it more
closely resembles the rest of U.S. television content in hiding reality.
It does state “U.S. drones have murdered thousands, including women and
children.” “Murder,” by the way, is the U.S. government’s own terminology, and strictly accurate.
Nick Mottern, coordinator of KnowDrones.com, suggested that activists
have focused on appealing directly to drone pilots because appealing to
the U.S. government has become so hopeless. “The President and the
Congress,” he said, “refuse to respect law and morality and stop U.S.
drone attacks, so we are asking the people who bear the burden of doing
the actual killing to put a stop to it.”
In fact, drone pilots are suffering post traumatic stress and moral
injury in significant numbers, and dropping out in significant numbers.
Information on all the factors involved in creating the current, and
much desired, shortage of drone pilots is, of course, incomplete. For a
discussion of the issue, listen to this week’s Talk Nation Radio with guest Brian Terrell. Efforts are also alive and well to get armed drones banned or to at least stop the U.S. government from arming the world with them.
Below is a nice collection of statements gathered by KnowDrones.com
as part of its effort to persuade those who are all too much in the
habit of obeying immoral orders:
1. “America’s targeted killing program is illegal, immoral and unwise.”
-Archbishop Desmond Tutu – From forward to Drones and Targeted Killing January, 2015
2. “There are two main reasons why drone warfare is
neither just nor moral. First, it replaces interrogation by
assassination. Specific individuals (including American citizens) are
placed on ‘kill lists.’ They are targeted with no accountability for
errors in judgment or excesses of attack. All due process is
abandoned…Our consciences are stricken by the indefensible loss of life
through drone warfare.”
- The Rev. George Hunsinger, Professor of Systemic Theology, Princeton Theological Seminary. January 24, 2015.
3. “They call themselves warfighters. They are assassins.”
- Former Congressman and member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence Rush Holt speaking of drone operators at the Interfaith Conference on Drone Warfare held at Princeton Theological Seminary, January 23 – 25.
4. “We are the ultimate voyeurs, the ultimate Peeping
Toms. I’m watching this person, and this person has no clue what’s going
on. No one’s going to catch us. And we’re getting orders to take these
people’s lives.”
- Brandon Bryant – former U.S. drone sensor operator quoted in the documentary Drone. Democracy Now, April 17, 2014.
5. Drone attacks violate basic human rights outlined in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights including rights to the protection of life
(Article 3), privacy (Article 12) and due process (Article 10). The
UDHR, born out of the horrors of World War II, was ratified by the
United States in 1948 and forms the basis for international human rights
law today.
6. “The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his
Government or of a superior does not relieve him of responsibility
under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to
him.”
- Principle IV of The Principles of International Law Recognized in
the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal and the Judgment of the Tribunal,
The United Nations 1950.
7. “…there are grounds to
maintain that anyone who believes or has reason to believe that a war is
being waged in violation of minimal canons of law and morality has an
obligation of conscience to resist participation in and support of that
war effort by every means at his disposal. In that respect, the
Nuremberg principles provide guidelines for citizens’ conscience and a
shield that can be used in the domestic legal system to interpose
obligations under international law between the government and members
of the society.”
- Richard Falk, professor emeritus of international law and practice,
Princeton University. From The Circle of Responsibility”, The Nation,
June 13, 2006.
8. “According to the Nuremberg Principles, it is not only the
right, but also the duty of individuals to make moral and legal
judgments concerning wars in which they are asked to fight.”
– John Scales Avery, world peace activist, The Nuremberg Principles and Individual Responsibility, Countercurrents, July 30, 2012.
9. U.S. MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper drone attacks have killed at
least 6,000* people. That’s an estimate by KnowDrones.com based on
various reports including those of the Bureau of Investigative
Journalism.
10. In addition, to the death and injury resulting from drone
attacks, the presence of drones overhead terrorizes whole populations in
drone war zones, leading to disruptions to family and community life
and psychological injury. “…the fear of strikes undermines people’s sense of safety
to such an extent that it has at times affected their willingness to
engage in a wide variety of activities, including social gatherings,
educational and economic opportunities, funerals…the U.S. practice of
striking one area multiple times, and its record of killing first
responders, makes both community members and humanitarian workers afraid
to assist injured victims.
– Living Under Drones, September, 2012.
IF BEALE AIR FORCE BASE COULD TALK: Facts About Drones and Beale AFB from KnowDrones.com The MQ-1 Predator and the MQ-9 Reaper are the primary killer drones used by the United States.
The Predator carries two Hellfire missiles and the Reaper can carry
four Hellfires and two five hundred pound bombs. The Hellfire is
designed for use against armored vehicles and structures and has a
devastating effect when used against people in the open or in civilian
vehicles. People are often dismembered or pulverized. Since the U.S. began drone warfare in Afghanistan in 2001, drone attacks have been undertaken in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, Libya, and possibly in Syria. About 6,000 people have been killed by US Drones in Pakistan, Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya,
according to estimates provided by the Bureau of Investigative
Journalism, the foremost independent monitor of drone war casualties. Of
this total up to 230 are children killed in Pakistan, Yemen and
Somalia, according to Bureau statistics. The Bureau does not have an
estimate of women killed in these countries or across the whole drone
war. But judging from what little is known of women being killed in
drone attacks and the international scope of the drone attacks, it
appears that many women have been killed, probably numbering in at least
the hundreds. It is impossible to know with any certainty how many
people have been killed by U.S. drones. The U.S. has withheld all
information on the extent of the drone attacks, and drone attacks occur
in very remote areas, making independent accounting difficult and
grossly incomplete. Drones flown out of Beale AFB are “accomplice drones.” Global Hawk drones controlled from Beale are used in the targeting of Predator and Reaper attacks. The 48th
Intelligence Squadron at Beale AFB processes information gathered by
the MQ-1 Predator, MQ-9 Reaper and RQ – Global Hawk drones to permit
attacks by U.S. forces worldwide. Predator and Reaper drones are not
flown from control centers at Beale. At least 100 Predator and 200 Reaper drones are believed to be operating now;
exact figures are not available. At any given moment the U.S. has at
least 180 Predator and Reaper drones in the air; 60 combat patrols,
comprised of three drones each. The Air Force wants to increase the
number of constant combat patrols to 65, putting 195 drones in the air
at any given time. As of December 2013, there were about 1,350 drone pilots in the U.S. Air Force,
according to an April 2014 Government Accountability Office (GAO)
report, which said that the Air Force had not been meeting its
recruiting goals for drone pilots. Further, more drone pilots are
quitting than can be trained, as reported by TomDispatch on March 26,
2015, which said the Air Force would like to have 1,700 pilots to cover
the 65 combat patrols. A key factor in the attrition is said to be over
work, increasing even more as missions expand in Iraq, Libya, and
Syria. It appears likely that the stress is also leading to mistakes
being made, further endangering those under surveillance. The GAO report says that the U.S. Air Force “has not fully analyzed” the “stress” faced by pilots
who go home every day after flying missions. The report said: “…pilots
in each of the 10 focus groups (which included Beale pilots)…reported
that being deployed-on-station (going home every day) negatively
affected their quality of life, as it was challenging for them to
balance their warfighting responsibilities with their personal lives for
extended periods of time.”
