"Occupation" Anywhere, Anytime,

Fogel family murderer gets 5 life sentences

The Samaria Military Court on Tuesday sentenced Hakim Awad, 18, who was convicted in the murder of five members of the Fogel family in Itamar last March, to five consecutive life sentences and another five years in prison - a total of 130 years behind bars.

...Prior to the sentencing Awad declared he was not sorry and claimed he murdered the five "because of the occupation."

During the court hearing, Awad claimed that Israeli security forces tied up and killed two men from his village. "I am 18 and in my teenage years. Not any young man of this age thinks about murder, only a Palestinian man whose land was taken. This is what the state does to me every day. When I want to leave my village I have to undergo a search which always involves beatings."

As he left the court he motioned the V sign for Victory with his fingers..."I am a person like you, I have no mental condition, I never had a serious illness. My only illness is the Israeli occupation." He replied negatively when asked if he regrets his actions.

...Defense Attorney Raed Erda claimed that the occupation was the cause of the murder. He noted that the Supreme Court had ruled that murders committed inside the territories are considered acts of war.

"The prosecutor mentioned that the murder of a baby is a cruel and harsh act but all murders are harsh – no matter whether it's of a baby, a young person or an adult. We're all human beings and our blood is the same. No blood is more red than another."

Erda enraged the judges when he claimed that the defendant was as much a victim as the Fogel family was. "When you build a Jewish community among dozens of Arab communities and do not provide it with the necessary security you can expect this to happen. Houses are being built on their lands, there's no work, no education, the occupation is pushing people from all directions and a boy like the defendant goes out and does things like this without realizing their consequences."

Presiding Judge Major Menachem Lieberman said, "The defendant blamed everyone else for his actions. He blamed former IDF chief Dan Halutz, Prime Minister Netanyahu, the occupation, the settlers - everyone but himself."

This is what the Pals. mean when the claim a Jewish presence is "state terror", and that it justifies their own terror which they began before the "occupation" existed, beginning, at least, in 1920, led by a religious leader, the Mufti-to-be, Haj Amin El-Husseini.

Unless...unlesss by "occupation" they mean any Jewish presence anywhere and anytime.

Which they do.

For example, here

How Zionist regime expands illegal settlements in Palestine? State terrorism, massacres, destruction, etc., in Palestine promote Zionist fascism shielded by Western terror syndicates led by the US. Through sheer genocides of Palestinians and capturing of their lands Israel has successfully proliferated settlements, but the support it receives from the US-UK led Western powers in all respects, including terror goods, has emboldened the Zionist regime to prolong the occupation and genocides.

Mischief in talks, fanaticism and terror attacks constitute the hallmark of Zionism. Israeli leaders have systematically prolonged the occupation and genocides in Palestine. Last month, Israeli fascist leader Netanyahu offered to renew the freeze if the Palestinian Authority recognized Israel as a Jewish state, but it dismissed the fake idea

In 1997, there was this

June 14
In a statement issued after an emergency meeting, Fatah, the leading Palestinian political agency, asserts that "[Israel's] policy of settlements and land confiscation constitutes organized state terror against the Palestinian lands. The Palestinian people have a right to react to settlement terror via all means."

Here, when

Ahmad Qurei, PLO's official in charge of al-Quds affairs, issued a statement on Wednesday...'Israel must not be able to use settlers to enact its ethnic cleansing policy, Qurei said...He accused Tel Aviv of imposing state terror and taking advantage of settler violence as a lever to force the Palestinians to cease their demands for a settlement freeze...

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