Bullies bully. They need no reason. they simply bully because they
are bigger, or stronger, or more intimidating, or meaner, or sneakier.
We can inspect and dissect them, try to figure them out, why they do
what they do, but that's going to get us nowhere. Bullies bully. The
only way to deal with bullying bullies is to not play their game. And
from the past several day's news, that's not working out so well,
either. Sitting peacefully in protest while snipers pick you off one
at a time, is a bad idea.
It just struck me that these Israelis are descended from people who
were persecuted by Nazi Germany. And here they are. Here they are,
making me wonder if Nazi values won the day after all. Do you realize
that Capitalism and Nazism are closer to one another in philosophical
thinking than Capitalism and Christianity?
Just a thought from a devout Agnostic.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/17/18, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
So evesn in this article, some credence is given to the idea that burning
kites sent into the air from inside Gaza can fly far enough over the
barriers into Israel to cause damage there. Incredible!
Miriam
Drones Over Gaza: How Israel Tested Its Latest Technology on Protesters
By Daniel Hilton, Middle East Eye
17 May 18
Tear gas grenades dropped from above caused injuries, panic and death
during
this week's Gaza and West Bank protests
The mismatch between Palestinian protesters and Israeli forces has often
been likened to David and Goliath. Now, Goliath doesn't even need to enter
the field of combat.
In a new innovation, small drones have been used by Israel's military to
drop tear gas on Palestinian protests along the Gaza Strip's border with
Israel and in the occupied West Bank.
First seen in early March, when Lebanon's Al-Mayadeen TV filmed a group of
protesters in Gaza as they were targeted by one, the gas-carrying drones
were used heavily in protests in the coastal enclave and the occupied West
Bank on Monday and Tuesday.
There appear to be three types of drones being used to disperse the gas.
The first, developed by Israeli company ISPRA and known as the "Cyclone
Riot
Control Drone System", is a small drone with rotas that carries a box
containing nine light aluminium cartridges which burn up after they are
released.
However, two other models appear to have been used, which experts told MEE
have never been seen before.
One is a drone that releases gas directly from the craft, like an aerosol,
dispersing a cloud on those below.
The other, a potentially far more dangerous device, is a helicopter-style
drone which carries rubber bursting grenades with metal tops that disperse
gas as they fall.
As the Great March of Return protests came to a crescendo earlier this
week,
the third type of drone became by far the most regularly used of the three,
according to experts spoken to by MEE.
This drone does not appear to be a sophisticated device.
"It's more sophisticated [than a commercial drone] - it's not something
that
you would buy cheaply on Amazon, but I think it's not far from it," Itay
Mack, an Israeli human rights lawyer and activist who tracks Israel's
military exports, told MEE.
The drone appears to be fitted with a spring-loaded rack, which opens to
drop a number of tear gas grenades.
"I think the pins are manually pulled from the grenades when they are
secured in the rack before takeoff," James Bevan, executive director of
Conflict Armament Research, told MEE.
The rack is then released once the drone is positioned over the area where
the controller wishes to disperse the gas.
"It may be something as simple as a retracting pin attached to a
servomotor,
which is wired into the drone's circuits," Bevan says. "This is what
Islamic
State [IS] used in Iraq and Syria."
According to Bevan, IS is the only group for which there is physical
evidence of these small, helicopter-type drones' use in combat situations,
mostly seen in Iraq's Mosul and Syria's Tal Afar.
"We see drone use in other theatres, including by non-state groups, but
these have been military fixed-wing drones," he said.
New range, new danger
Monday's demonstrations in Gaza coincided with the ceremony marking the
official opening of the United States' new embassy in Jerusalem while
Tuesday's protests marked 70 years since the Palestinian Nakba - or
Catastrophe - when 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes in
historic Palestine in 1948.
Over the two days, 62 Palestinians were killed by live fire or tear gas
inhalation, as Israeli forces attempted to quell the protests.
At least 980 Palestinians were wounded by tear gas dropped on the protests
on Monday, Gaza's health ministry said, including many minors.
The drones have given the Israeli forces new range. Previously, gas
canisters had only been fired into the Gaza Strip from vehicles on the
Israeli side of the divide.
The large fence that separates the besieged enclave from Israel restricts
the military's ability to fire gas across the border, unlike in the West
Bank where soldiers often fire the canisters from specially equipped
rifles.
Israeli forces rarely make ground incursions into the Gaza Strip, which
they
pulled out of in 2005, while they maintain a significant presence in the
occupied West Bank.
This new range has allowed the Israelis to target areas far from the
flashpoint border area, places more likely to be populated by families,
minors and the elderly.
Gas a threat to the vulnerable
"The problem with gas grenades is they are especially dangerous to small
children and elderly people," Mack said.
The gas can be fatal in two ways: suffocation and overdosing on the
chemicals used.
The deaths of several Palestinians in the West Bank have been linked to
tear
gas inhalation in recent years. In 2015 an eight-month-old baby in the
village of Beit Fajjar died after soldiers fired tear gas into his home.
And in 2014, Palestinian minister Ziad Abu Ein died from complications
related to tear gas inhalation after attending a protest near the village
of
Turmusaya.
A report last year described the Aida refugee camp in the southern West
Bank
as the "community most exposed to tear gas in the world".
Reports emerged on Tuesday that an eight-month-old baby, Leila al-Ghandour,
was also killed by tear gas in the Gaza Strip. She is said to have been
exposed to the gas while at a protest site far from the Israeli separation
fence, though at the time of publication this could not be independently
verified by MEE.
Indiscriminate projectiles
Though made of rubber, the gas grenades dropped from the drones are weighty
and have a metal top.
The Israeli military has regulations banning firing such projectiles
directly at people. Gas canisters fired from specially fitted rifles are
particularly dangerous at short range.
The long-range 40mm grenade launchers used by Israel are also considered
dangerous because they can be fired with only limited accuracy.
A spokesman from Omega Research Foundation, which researches the
manufacture, trade in and use of military, security and police
technologies,
told MEE that drones can be used to increase accuracy when dispersing tear
gas.
"On a purely technical level, the drones can hover at a safe height to drop
the grenades and target individuals that pose a threat," the spokesman, who
wished to remain anonymous, said.
However, video footage of this week's protests appears to show the
canisters
dropping from a considerable height, reducing accuracy and increasing the
risk of head injuries.
Not a threat
Israel has repeatedly accused the protesters in Gaza of attempting to cross
the border fence and lay explosives in Israeli territory. It says the use
of
live fire and tear gas is justified by the threat protesters pose by
breaching the barrier.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told the AFP news agency
previously
that the drones have "the capability of flying over certain zones and
certain areas and then letting go of tear gas in areas that we want to
prevent protesters from reaching".
However, MEE reporters in Gaza and the West Bank and videos emerging online
suggest Israeli forces targeted areas far from the border area and people
who did not appear to pose a threat.
On Monday, an MEE reporter was gassed by a drone along with several other
members of the media. The area targeted was clearly populated by many
journalists, with vehicles prominently displaying "Press".
Video footage also showed a drone dropping gas on a communal tent full of
women and children, apparently more than 500 metres from the border.
The deployment of gas grenades from above appears in some situations to
have
sown confusion and fear among crowds, rather than dispersing them to other
locations.
In a demonstration on Tuesday near the illegal Israeli settlement Beit El
in
the West Bank at least four drones deployed gas directly onto protesters.
A 20-year-old protester there, who wished to remain anonymous, told MEE
that
"panic ensued" when the drones appeared in the sky.
"People were running in all directions unsure of where to go as the drones
hovered above our heads waiting to drop tear gas," the protester told MEE.
"The Israelis have only begun using these drones in the last few weeks.
They
are indiscriminate, and show no mercy."
According to Gabriel Avner, an Israeli security consultant, Israel's policy
in Gaza is a departure from its usual crowd-control methods.
"The situation in Gaza right now is completely different to what is
happening anywhere else... they're thinking of this as a full-on conflict
zone," he told MEE.
"There is some cause for concern because the rules of engagement are
hard-coded," he said, adding that the Israeli military needed to make sure
soldiers were properly trained to understand the potential consequences
when
new technology such as this is introduced.
'Kite terrorism'
The use of drones is not limited to dispersing tear gas, however.
Some Palestinians have been flying kites across the border, often
incendiary
ones carrying burning coals with the objective of starting bush fires in
Israeli territory.
According to Israeli daily Haaretz, the Israeli military has enlisted
amateur racer drones to intercept the kites, using the rotas and fish hooks
attached to the crafts to cut their cords and send them off course.
The drones intercepting the kites are operated by hobbyists, and can reach
speeds of 110 metres per second, Haaretz reported.
One of the kites that reached the Israeli side of the divide carried a
suspected remote-controlled bomb, the paper reported.
While the device did not explode, and police sappers said it may have been
a
dud or a fake, the paper speculated it could herald a new phase along the
border of what it called "kite terrorism".
Many of the kites are harmless, however, with protesters often using them
to
fly the Palestinian flag.
If not intercepted by drones, these kites are often shot down using live
fire.
Technology to sell
Israel is one of the world's leading countries in drone technology.
It has been using unmanned aerial vehicles since the late 1970s, when they
were used by the military for surveillance in south Lebanon, and were
widely
deployed in Israel's 1982 invasion of its neighbour to the north.
Mack, the human rights lawyer, noted that Israel has previously used
conflicts to showcase its weaponry with the intention of selling it on.
Israel sells its arms and technology to many countries. Last month the
German Defence Ministry announced its intention to sign a $1bn contract
with
Israel Aerospace Industries to lease unmanned aerial vehicles.
Tel Aviv has been criticised for selling weaponry to governments with poor
human rights records, most recently Myanmar, which has reportedly bought
Israeli military equipment as it conducts an operation against the Rohingya
minority. The Myanmar government's assault against Rohingya communities has
been widely described as ethnic cleansing.
Israeli company Global Group also sold surveillance drones to the
beleaguered and cash-strapped government of South Sudan for millions of
dollars in December.
The South Sudanese government's forces have been accused by the UN of
serious human rights abuses since its civil war broke out in 2013.
The Israeli military's use of drones to drop gas in Gaza and the West Bank
suggests that the models sold to South Sudan could equally be adapted to
release tear gas or other payloads.
"Larger commercial drones . are designed to carry a range of payloads
(large
cameras for sports events, crop-spraying attachments), so are designed to
operate payload functions remotely. This would be very easy to configure,"
Bevan said.
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