Learn about the history of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, equality and justice by exploring major events in the history of their oppression on this day of the year.
19 January
On this day in 2010, an Israeli assassination squad murdered Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a Hamas official, in a Dubai hotel room. The squad used 15 UK passports in the names of dual Israeli-British citizens. Two months later, when the UK expelled one Israeli diplomat, Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond demanded sanctions: “there should be implications, for example in trading relationships…You can't have normal relationships if you believe another country has been involved in what Israel has been involved in.”
19 يناير 2020م
في هذا اليوم من العام 2010م، قامت فرقة اغتيالات إسرائيلية بقتل محمد المبحوح أحد مسئولي حركة حماس في إحدى غرف فندق بدبي. وقد استخدمت الفرقة 15 من الجوازات البريطانية بأسماء مواطنين يحملون جنسيات مزدوجة اسرائيلية وبريطانية. بعد مرور شهرين، عندما قامت المملكة المتحدة بطرد أحد الدبلوماسيين الإسرائيليين، طالب الوزير الإسكتلندي الأول أليكس سالموند بتطبيق العقوبات: "يجب أن تكون هنالك تبعات، على سبيل المثال في مجال العلاقات التجارية... لا يمكنكم إقامة علاقات طبيعية إذا كنتم ترون أن دولة أخرى قد تورطت في ما تورطت فيه دولة إسرائيل".
Mr Salmond replied to a question on BBC's Question Time about the decision by the Foreign Secretary to expel an Israeli diplomat. The expulsion followed an investigation into the cloning of up to 15 British passports, in the operation leading to the killing of a Hamas leader in Dubai in January. Mr Salmond said that Mr Miliband's actions were
"not enough. Friendly countries don't steal the passports of other countries' citizens and use that as part of an arrangement to assassinate their political enemies. And therefore it has to be treated in the context of the seriousness of what the Foreign Secretary believes that Israel have been doing.
"Stealing peoples' passports - and indeed the assassination - must be a criminal offence. Surely, if the Foreign Secretary has now identified to his satisfaction that Israel is responsible, then he should be thinking of legal action.
"In terms of the relationship with the Israeli government, it should be more than expelling a diplomat, there should be implications, for example in trading relationships.
"You can't have normal relationships if you believe another country has been involved in what Israel has been involved in, according to the Foreign Secretary."
The UK Labour Government was very forgiving about the use of British passports to assassinate a Palestinian.
"After two weeks of diplomatic wrangling, it appears that the temporary impasse between the Foreign Office and the Israeli embassy has come to a close. Despite ongoing controversy over Israel's alleged role in the killing of a Hamas commander, David Miliband is to attend a housewarming reception at the recently refurbished Israeli embassy at the end of the month.What's more, in something of a turn-up for the books, the Foreign Secretary is to be joint guest of honour at the event, along with the Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks.
"Only two weeks ago the Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor was being summoned to the Foreign Office to explain the use of forged British passports by the Dubai assassins.
"What, The Independent wondered during a call to the Foreign Office, had brought around such a shift in relations? 'I have no idea,' sniffed a spokesman. 'All I can say is that he's going. He has been invited and thus he is attending.'"
The EU were also very forgiving - Robert Fisk's indictment of the EU cosy relationship with Israel
Up until the start of the Second Palestinian Intifada, in September 2000, when Israel first began to respond to suicide bombings with the daily use of armed drones to perform assassinations, the state had conducted some 500 targeted killing operations. In these, at least 1,000 people were killed, both civilians and combatants. During the Second Intifada, Israel carried out some 1,000 more operations, of which 168 succeeded. Since then, up until the writing of this book, Israel has executed some 800 targeted killing operations, almost all of which were part of the rounds of warfare against Hamas in the Gaza Strip in 2008, 2012, and 2014 or Mossad operations across the Middle East against Palestinian, Syrian, and Iranian targets. By contrast, during the presidency of George W. Bush, the United States of America carried out 48 targeted killing operations, according to one estimate, and under President Barack Obama there were 353 such attacks.""
Rise and Kill First, by Ronan Bergman - an Israeli history of Mossad assassinations.