Apartheid, Israel Style?

Via the Liberal Avenger, a report of Israeli retaliation against a non-violent demonstration:

The rally began with a speech read by Omar Assaf, a member of the Committee of National and Islamic Factions in the West Bank. The march to the Wall construction site began with villagers carrying Lebanese and Palestinian flags.

But the army was already present within the village, having occupied several rooftops with snipers, and with armored vehicles stationed at the entrance of the village in order to stop the procession there. There were also water cannon trucks that fired blue dye at the protestors, which, according to local organizer Abdullah Abu Rahma, appeared to contain toxic components.

Seven residents who were hit with the full blast of the dye began screaming and shaking when the dye hit them. The soldiers then fired rubber-coated bullets, and an Associated Press photographer named Rami Abdu was injured when one of the rubber-coated bullets hit him in the back.

According to a press release from the International Solidarity Movement, who had members present at the protest, “Bright blue water was fired from the canon at the demonstrators, totally unprovoked, as soon as they were within range of the massive white tank. Many demonstrators were soaked by the blue liquid, dying their hair, clothes and skin, and most of them reported subsequent burning and irritation of the skin. Tear gas was also used against the demonstrators as soon as the water canon was engaged, so it is unclear whether the burning was from gas being absorbed into the wet skin and clothing, or whether the water itself contained a chemical. Regardless, the message from the Israeli army was clear: non-violent protest will not be tolerated and will be met by increasing displays of force.”

The Liberal Avenger notes that Israel seems to have used exactly what the old white-supremacist South African government found so useful - a mix of dye, water and turpentine known as "purple rain". It was used on Jewish protestors too - settlers protesting their evacuation from Gaza - last year. Just dissenting seems to get you marked, literally, as a criminal in Israel nowadays.

Same tactics as one of the most notorious totalitarian regimes of all time...and the same kind of thinking too. Once upon a time, even many Republicans found it stuck in their craws to support a government like that.