IN THE SHADOWS 

Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 22-year-old Palestinian man in the West Bank city of Tulkarem on Tuesday. You did not hear about it in the mainstream news media and you certainly won’t hear about it now. This is the harsh reality of the bias in almost all of the leading news outlets. It occurred during a pre-dawn raid when Muhammad Habali was in the streets of Tulkarem along with other protesting men holding nothing but a long, thin, broom-like stick as a means of armoury. This homicide was recorded on a mobile device by one of the men who were with the victim protesting. As these men started holding back from retaliation, Habali turns his back towards what seems to be where the soldiers are, according to the video, and starts walking away. As he does so he is shot down in cold blood and I must say this is certainly not for the faint-hearted to watch.

Palestinians pray by the body of Muhammad Habali 22,
during his funeral in Tulkarem

As usual the Israeli military found ways to cover up and sweep their criminal act under the carpet of piled up lies by saying that its forces opened fire during “a violent riot … in which dozens of Palestinians hurled rocks.” Also an important point to keep in mind and analyse in regards to this unjustifiable act is the fact that this happened during a pre-dawn raid. This is a very common time when Jewish military forces attack on sleeping Palestinians. They know that pre-dawn raids work in their advantage as it gives them the power of undertaking land and all private properties without a warrant or notice of Palestinians while they are typically asleep. The lack of witnesses mainly being journalists enables them to work in private. Illegal arrests, kidnapping, house raids, you mention it, all would be easier for them to do as not many people will be there to repel them.

Of the nearly 300 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces so far this year, more than 30 were shot and killed in the occupied West Bank – several during raids on cities, villages and refugee camps. What is so sickening about all this is that nobody pities all these innocent lives lost but when a Jewish settler living on stolen land is killed or most of the time threatened by Palestinians, there is an outbreak and the whole thing is made to seem as if it’s the end of the world. Something which is even more sickening is when great, powerful people give into the Zionist movement and start supporting Israel in all of its atrocious acts, one recent case being Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. 
Is it True-deau?
Going back to Nov. 7 at the House of Commons in Canada is a clear case of the strength of Israeli lobby groups on powerful people around the world. The newest sweetheart poster boy of neoliberal politics, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, simply whitewashed one crime with another when he apologised on behalf of Canadians for the atrocious fact that Canada rejected a ship carrying some 900 Jewish refugees running away from the murderous Nazis in 1939. 

Trudeau said that “We are sorry for the callousness of Canada's response”. I think he should have been apologising for the callousness of Canada’s response towards the thousands of Palestinians which are actively being illegally imprisoned, tortured, tormented and killed every single day that passes by which he carelessly dismissed and shoved aside by his next statement. He said; 

During this Holocaust Education Week, it is all the more impossible to ignore the challenges and injustices still facing Jews in this country. According to the most recent figures, 17 per cent of all hate crimes in Canada target Jewish people – far higher per capita than any other group. Holocaust deniers still exist. Antisemitism is still far too present. Jewish institutions and neighbourhoods are still being vandalised with swastikas. Jewish students still feel unwelcome and uncomfortable on some of our college and university campuses because of BDS-related intimidation. And out of our entire community of nations, it is Israel whose right to exist is most widely – and wrongly – questioned. Discrimination and violence against Jewish people in Canada and around the world continues at an alarming rate. 

It might be true that Jews all over the world and in Canada do still feel a certain hostile, unwelcoming and threatening feeling from other races but what about the thousands of Palestinians constantly terrorised by the illegal settlers and IDF (Israel Defense Forces) in their own hometowns? What about the children who are violently ripped away from their families with both the child and parents screaming for help and weeping with such pain who are taken for physically and mentally abusing interviews or even jailed? What about all the houses mercilessly burned down to the ground and all the fertile land which is destroyed? How inhumane and degrading do you think that must be for Palestinians and how do you think they might feel living in such a world?

It rages me when I go over what he had said but it is indeed a realisation that politicians such as

(Left) Benjamin Netanyahu, (Right) Justin Trudeau 

Trudeau, who for so long seemed to be an ideal politician portraying a kind but fake persona, are more of a threat to humanity and its future than ignorant and irrational people such as Trump. So much like the malicious and deceiving liar Netanyahu, you never know what politicians like Trudeau have planned up their sleeves which is very intimidating. I am very disappointed that someone who I had such great faith in and believed in turned out to be such a deceiving liar. He gave into the Israeli Government’s lies and is now aboard a train of propaganda and hatred towards Palestinians. Will there be a way to bring him back? Only time will tell.