Before I visited Belfast & Derry, Northern Ireland in 1983, then under British military occupation, I had never known such a terrifying spectacle. Taxis wouldn’t drive into the Catholic neighborhoods & there were no buses anymore; everyone going into the shopping district went through military checkpoints where belongings & bodies were searched; currency exchanges, hotels, & other businesses were surrounded by tiers of barbed wire & armed soldiers. But worst of all, there were constant caravans of armored vehicles. Some would stop & egest soldiers aiming rifles; some had soldiers with rifles mounted on turrets pointed directly at pedestrians, including women with baby strollers & small children walking to school. On one occasion, I pointed my camera at a soldier aiming at a woman & child & he pointed his rifle at me until I put the camera down.

A group of small boys agreed to guide me in Belfast to show me the murals done in tribute to the hunger strikers. Periodically they would stop to hurl stones at passing caravans of British troops. It scared the hell out of me & I observed the boyish insouciance of the pelters was only apparent; the boys were as scared as they were defiant.

This photo of an Israeli soldier in the West Bank village of Tafoh (near Hebron) during Israel’s jackboot occupation (June 15th) is worth one of Netanyahu’s ten thousand lies. Pro-Zionist media can spin the narrative anyway they like but pointing a rifle with live ammunition at unarmed women & children is no part of hostage negotiations with kidnappers. It is a brutal military occupation.

The faces of these young boys testify to Israeli terrorism; the mothers are afraid to look at the soldier lest they provoke him. Look at this photo & try to claim Israel is only trying to get the three boys back by terrorizing Palestinians.

(Photo by AFP)