After an 11-month walk to the Palestine border, Swedish activist Benjamin Ladraa was denied entry by Israel. One reason cited was that he would visit the occupied village of Nabi Saleh, which has been resisting Israeli forces.
Palestinians take to the streets in protest of Donald Trump’s peace plan.
Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces and hundreds of others were injured during the “Great March of Return” protest alongside the eastern borders of the Gaza Strip on Friday. The dead were a 14-year-old, Yasser Abu al-Najja, and Muhammad Fawzi Muhammad al-Hamaydeh, 24.
The U.S. has quietly frozen its aid to the Palestinian Authority on Tuesday, a provision of the Taylor Force Act passed earlier this year, according to the Israeli news reports.
A group of extremist Israeli colonizers burnt, on Friday evening, dozens of dunams of Palestinian olive orchards in Burin village, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus. The attack was said to be committed by fanatics from the illegal Yitzhar colony, and not their first.
AFP reports “The United States withdrew from the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday, condemning the ‘hypocrisy’ of its members and its alleged ‘unrelenting bias’ against Israel.”
A Palestinian Boyhood, the new autobiography by Palestinian writer Reja-e Busailah, relates a remarkable story about overcoming the challenges of growing up blind in Palestine in the years up to and including the 1948 Nakba, which uprooted his family. Georgia Beeston: “Simply written, the book takes the reader through the author’s daily life, underlining the everyday challenges of the visually impaired.””
“The gruesome photos show a man desperately grasping at his throat for air as smoke pours from his cheek.” A searing report by the National on the disfigurement of Haitham Abu Sabla, whose head was penetrated by a tear gas canister fired by an Israeli sniper on the Gaza border June 8, leaving him severely compromised.
Musicians in the Alanwar band were arrested Monday by Israeli forces for creating tunes of incitement.
Yesterday Israeli snipers killed four more Palestinians protesting on the Gaza border, and shot another 114. In the nine weeks since the beginning of the Great Return March, Israel has killed 127 Palestinians, and injured 14700 others, including women, children, medics and journalists.
The AP reports, “The Palestinian men who chant and beat drums to wake up the faithful during Ramadan in Jerusalem’s Old City say they are being unfairly targeted by Israeli police over their early-morning tradition.” The wakers, called “musaharati,” canvass Jerusalem’s Old City at 2 a.m., calling Muslims to rise for the last meal before the Ramadan fast begins.
The killing of Razan al-Najjar, 21, a medic, brings the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli army fire since the beginning of the Great Return Match on March 30th to 119, including another medic. More than 13,400 have been injured, including 330 who suffered life-threatening wounds.
Two boats sailed today from the Gaza Strip in an attempt to break Israel’s siege. All of the passengers were Palestinians who were injured by Israel in recent protests. The boats were promptly intercepted by the Israeli navy.
Israel’s Supreme Court has unanimously rejected two petitions brought by human rights groups demanding Israel’s army to stop using snipers and live ammunition against unarmed Palestinian protests in the Gaza Strip.
Phil Weiss interviews Jim Zogby to mark the joint Mondoweiss-Arab American Institute publication of Zogby’s important book ‘Palestinians: The Invisible Victims’, a critical examination of the ideology and practice of Political Zionism. ‘Palestinians: The Invisible Victims’ will be available on June 1, but you can pre-order it now.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip, since the Great Return March protests started on March 30th:
– Israeli soldiers have killed 112 Palestinians, and injured 13,190
– 13 Palestinian children have been killed and 2,096 have been injured
– 502 Palestinians were shot in the head and neck.
– 283 Palestinians were shot in the chest and back.
– 225 Palestinians were shot in the abdomen and pelvis.
– 1,117 Palestinians suffered various cuts and bruises to several parts of their bodies.
– 27 of the wounded Palestinians suffered amputations of their legs, one of his arm, and four others had fingers severed by Israeli fire.
At least 21 Palestinians and Israeli peace activists were arrested Friday night in Haifa city during a peaceful protest against the Israeli crimes in Gaza.
Jonathan Cook: “For seven decades, the west has pampered Israel at every turn. The lack of any meaningful punishment for violating Palestinian rights led directly to Monday’s massacre.”
Nikki Haley says U.S. embassy in Jerusalem “promoted” peace, blames Iran with Hamas back-up for deaths of Palestinian protesters. Meanwhile officials in the United Nations call for an investigation into Israel’s actions.
Reuters photographer Ibraheem Abu Mustafa: “I call this place a place of death, there is death here, it is not a place of comfort, any second someone could die.”
Palestinians in Gaza today began holding funerals for protesters killed by Israeli forces at yesterday’s Great March of Return near the buffer zone between Gaza and Israeli, which coincided with the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. Overnight casualties increased to 61, with the youngest killed was identified as 8-month old Laila al-Ghandour who died of tear gas inhalation.
Hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets of Jerusalem in protest as American and Israeli officials celebrated the inauguration of the US Embassy in Jerusalem on Monday, the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba. “In America, they have the statue of liberty and pride themselves on freedom, but then they come to Palestine and support the racism of the Israeli occupation,” local activist Mohammed Abu al-Hummus told Mondoweiss. “This move shows us that they do not understand the true meaning of democracy.”
Phil Weiss reports from Jerusalem on the protests as the U.S. opened its new embassy: “The demonstrations I just left near the new American embassy in Jerusalem were a dismal object lesson in Jewish sovereignty. The police beat up Palestinians merely for holding Palestinian flags and chanting that Palestine would be free. The police crumpled the flags, while women on an apartment balcony four floors up were spraying water on the Palestinian demonstrators.”
It took a visiting New York Times reporter from Cairo to finally tell some truths about Israel’s ongoing massacre of Palestinian demonstrators inside Gaza. Meanwhile, the paper’s Israel correspondents continue to distort and whitewash.
Today is unfolding as a horrifying and tragic day in Palestine. The Israeli military has opened fire on Gaza protesters as the U.S. and Israeli governments prepare to mark the move of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.