TV News LIES

Pope Leo decried conditions for Palestinians in Gaza in his Christmas sermon, in an unusually direct appeal during what is normally a solemn, spiritual service on the day Christians across the globe celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Leo, the first U.S. pope, said the story of Jesus being born in a stable showed that God had "pitched his fragile tent" among the people of the world.

Leo, celebrating his first Christmas after being elected in May by the world's cardinals to succeed the late Pope Francis, has a more quiet, diplomatic style than his predecessor and usually refrains from making political references in his sermons.

"How, then, can we not think of the tents in Gaza, exposed for weeks to rain, wind and cold?" he asked.

Leo, celebrating his first Christmas after being elected in May by the world's cardinals to succeed the late Pope Francis, has a more quiet, diplomatic style than his predecessor and usually refrains from making political references in his sermons.

More...

Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian home in the south of the Israeli-occupied West Bank overnight, breaking in and killing sheep, a Palestinian official said Tuesday. It was the latest in a surge of attacks by settlers against Palestinians in the territory in recent months.

Israeli police said they arrested five settlers.

The settlers killed three sheep and injured four more, smashed a door and a window of the home, and fired tear gas inside, sending three Palestinian children under the age of 4 to the hospital, said Amir Dawood, who directs an office documenting such attacks within a Palestinian governmental body called the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission.

Police said they arrested the five settlers on suspicion of trespassing onto Palestinian land, damaging property and dispensing pepper spray, not tear gas. They said they are investigating.

CCTV video from the attack in the town of As Samu’, shared by the commission, showed five masked settlers in dark clothing, some with batons, approaching the home and appearing to enter. Sounds of smashing are heard, as well as animal noises. Another video from inside shows masked figures appearing to strike sheep in the stable.

TVNL Comment:  No settler is ever punished.  There is a separate set of rules for Palestinians and settlers determined to force them out of their homes and land.  There is never an 'investigation.' The world turns a blind eye to the daily horrors.

More...

ust before she boarded her flight at Logan airport on 20 November, she was arrested by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and within 48 hours was deported back to Honduras, a country she left aged seven seeking asylum, with chains on her waist, ankles and wrists.

She told the Globe from her grandparent’s house in San Pedro Sula that her American Dream felt over: “I’m losing everything.”

The east coast US city might be a little short on holiday cheer this year.

Masked men in dark cars roam the streets carrying out immigration raids at traffic stops, supermarkets and courthouses. Fear has emptied some classrooms as teachers report thousands of empty desks because immigrant families fear children targeted as they learn.

An Ecuadorian couple in Boston who suffered human trafficking in the US were arrested by ICE twice in the last four months. In August the 43-year-old mother, who the Guardian is not naming, was detained for two months and 10 days. On 9 December, her husband was also arrested and is currently held in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

More...

A school district board in upstate New York is investigating school officials amid accusations that the district may have confined elementary school students inside wooden “timeout” boxes.

Images of the boxes, which resemble tiny padded cells, first spread on social media last week, after a former member of the Salmon River school district school board accused officials of building them to seclude children with disabilities. The images unleashed an immediate uproar in the small district, which teaches about 1,300 children and lies on the border between New York state and Canada.

In addition to investigating the officials, the Salmon River central school district board of education announced last Thursday it had placed three officials, including an elementary school teacher, on leave. It also reassigned the district’s superintendent to “home duties” and is cooperating with a New York state department of education investigation.

While the district superintendent acknowledged that the district had set up three of the wooden crates at two elementary schools, he also said that the district had removed the boxes and that no student had ever been confined inside them. However, at an emotional and tense community meeting last week, multiple parents said they suspected their children had been inside the boxes, the Albany-based Times Union reported.

One parent of a minimally verbal child said his son told him: “If you are happy or if you are sad, this is the place you have to go to calm down.”

More than 60% of Salmon River students are Native American. For several community members, the controversy over the boxes evoked memories of abusive residential schools, the US government’s boarding school system that sought to force Native American students to assimilate to white society. Nearly 1,000 students died at those schools, which operated as recently as the 1960s.

More...

Israeli occupation forces and illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers carried out widespread violations across the occupied West Bank on Saturday, including home invasions, abductions, shootings, among them the killing of two Palestinians, including a child, road attacks, and coordinated colonizer assaults on Palestinian towns and villages.

The incidents were concentrated in the governorates of Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin, Hebron, Jerusalem, and Salfit, reflecting a continued escalation in military operation and colonizers’ violations.

Ramallah: Road Attacks and Village Invasions:

In the central West Bank, Israeli forces shot and seriously wounded a Palestinian young man before dawn Saturday, in the village of Qarawat Bani Zeid, northwest of Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank.

illegal Israeli paramilitary colonizers accompanied by Israeli soldiers invaded the main road near Ein Yabrud, east of Ramallah, attacking Palestinian vehicles, damaging property, and obstructing traffic.

Israeli forces shot and seriously wounded a Palestinian young man before dawn Saturday,

Later in the day, armed colonizers invaded Shuqba, northwest of Ramallah, reaching the northern edge of the village.

During the invasion, they broke into a home and a playground, tampered with their contents, and withdrew under military protection.

Israeli forces also abducted several Palestinians in Silwad and nearby towns, stopping vehicles at checkpoints and detaining passengers.

More...