The following are excerpts from the article by Jonathan Cook titled: “Parallels between Minneapolis and Jerusalem are more than skin deep”. BTW, some weeks ago I came across someone asking for proof that the IDF forces use the knee on the neck. Well here it is. (r. a. note)
Middle East Eye.net By Jonathan Cook Tues., July 14, 2020
Most Israeli Jews are in deep denial about the racist ideology that underpins their major institutions, including the security services. Tiny numbers protest in solidarity with Palestinians, and those that do are widely seen by the rest of the Israeli public as traitors.
Many white Americans, on the other hand, have been shocked to see how quickly US police forces – faced with widespread protests – have resorted to aggressive crowd-control methods of the kind only too familiar to Palestinians.
Those methods include the declaration of curfews and closed areas in major cities; the deployment of sniper squads against civilians; the use of riot teams wearing unmarked uniforms or balaclavas; arrests of, and physical assaults on, journalists who are clearly identifiable; and the indiscriminate use of tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets to wound protesters and terrify them off the streets.
None of these parallels should surprise us. For years US police forces, along with many others around the world, have been queueing at Israel’s door to learn from its decades of experience in crushing Palestinian resistance.
It was then that human rights groups and others started to highlight the extent to which US police forces were being influenced by Israel’s methods of subjugating Palestinians. Many forces had been trained in Israel or involved in exchange programmes.
Full article here: https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/minneapolis-jerusalem-georgefloyd-Iyadhallaq-palestine-israel