In Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza, 13-year-old Asmaa, battling kidney disease, has a dream. “I want to visit the Holy Land of Mecca to pray for God and ask Him for His mercy
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Monthly Archives: March 2013
‘Do you know any Arabs in London?’ Israeli airport authorities grill British photojournalist before kicking him out
Mark Kerrison was detained at Ben Gurion airport and then deported earlier this month for reasons that were never explained, though border officials seemed very concerned that he might talk to Palestinians. Here he relates his ordeal, including one comfort he had in jail: “My eyes were most drawn, though, to some words in small, inconspicuous lettering immediately above my head: ‘I don’t pretend to know night-time from day, but if I were your God I’d have something to say.’”
Federal anti-discrimination law being used to shut down criticism of occupation
People who speak out on Israel, people who oppose the occupation, people who support BDS, boycott divestment and sanctions, the people who talk about the Zionist lobby in the US as being powerful, those people’s speech are being suppressed. The people who are speaking in favor [of Israel] without any criticism– that’s the speech that’s allowed. And so they basically turned this upside down — Michael Ratner on federal application of Title VI
Unlikely Jerusalem village takes the lead on Land Day
Land Day is an annual commemoration of six killed during a 1976 march against land expropriations in the Galilee. Last year Palestinians protested in thousands to mark Land Day. This year’s protests, at Qalandia, Damascus Gate and the southwest Jerusalem village of Beit Safafa, failed to capture the same momentum– and may signal a change in Palestinian attitudes about demonstrations.
‘My surprise was even greater–‘ Israeli emboff pens Dickensian letter to Lancet justifying harsh treatment of children throwing stones
Amir Ofek, press attache to Israel Embassy in London, defends Israel’s imprisonment of Palestinian children for throwing stones to protest occupation
Feeling the wrath of the Israel lobby, ‘WSJ’ neocon virtually accuses some advocates of dual loyalty
Bret Stephens was disinvited from a pro-Israel speaking gig for saying Jonathan Pollard should stay in prison. He says some lobbyists are confusing loyalty to their country and their people. (Inevitable confusion of Zionism)
Israeli army captain assaults valiant protester Ezra Nawi
Ezra Nawi relates his harassment: “An IDF captain shamelessly assaulting me, trying to snatch the camera from my hand, throwing a stun grenade and a tear gas grenade at us from practically zero distance”
Israeli gov’t has allocated 38% of West Bank state land to settlers, 1% to Palestinians
Land, property theft and destruction / Ethnic cleansing Just 0.7% of state land in the West Bank has been allocated to Palestinians, Israel admits Haaretz 28 Mar by Chaim Levinson — Over the past 33 years the Civil Administration has allocated less than one percent of state land in the West Bank to Palestinians, compared […]
Not a happy Passover for Hebron’s Palestinians
Hundreds of Israelis traveled over the Green Line to observe Passover this week at a carnival-like event as Israeli officials closed the Ibrahimi Mosque to Palestinians in the West Bank’s largest city. The contrast between the Palestinian and Israeli Jewish areas was stark. While most Palestinians closed up shop in Hebron’s Old City due to the threat of settler harassment, Israeli Jews marked Passover by dancing in the streets, surrounded by high-flying Israeli flags and armed soldiers.
Insider-trading case touches on American support for Zionism
Michael Steinberg, Wall Street figure charged with insider trading, helped start Jewish philanthropy that helps indoctrinate young Jews in support for Israel
In Iraq, and now Syria, US seeks secular outcome by… promoting sectarian division
Annie Robbins takes apart the neoconservative claim that the Arab world is beset by sectarian division. Baghdad was a mixed secular city before we tore that country apart. Now the same nostrum is being peddled about Syria
In enforcing DOMA, and in doing nothing against settlements — Obama lacks ‘courage of his convictions’
Edith Windsor, DOMA plaintiff, says that when Americans saw that gay people don’t have horns, they dropped their opposition to same-sex marriage. If only this normalization could happen for Palestinians
A tale of two rabbis
One NY rabbi could hear the questions, but another barred them from his synagogue: Is Israel—or can it be—a democracy? Is there—or can there be—equality in Israel? Can a Jewish state be democratic?
My 72 depressing hours on Obama’s trail
If you ever had a burning desire to see the American-Israeli alliance shine, there wasn’t a better place to be than Jerusalem last week. Those three days were full of symbolic gestures that testified to the rock-solid U.S.-Israeli alliance. It was more than enough time to appreciate the enormous work ahead of those wishing to shift policy on the conflict in the U.S.
Anthony Lewis’s death unleashes an ‘outpouring of vitriol’ about his views critical of Israel
The Jewish community can’t have an open discussion about Israel– inasmuch as Anthony Lewis’s death has prompted an outpouring of vitriol toward his writings critical of Israel
Liberal Zionist students battled Phila Jewish community to stage event critical of occupation– but ‘rooted in love’ of Israel
The University of Pennsylvania chapter of J Street, the liberal Zionist organization, managed to convince the Hillel board to accept an event by Breaking the Silence, the Israeli veterans group
Obama allowed Zionists to feel cool again
Why are liberal Zionists palpitating over twitter over the Obama visit to Israel? He gave them a little glamour
‘Look at the world through their eyes’ — Obama should take his own advice
Obama should never have undertaken his trip without a willingness to treat the Palestinian reality with at least equal dignity to that of the Israeli reality and without some indication of how he imagines a Palestinian state becoming a reality. But the president is eager in his second term to avoid being distracted by any allegation back home that he is not giving Israel its proper due.
BRICS memo: Time ‘to take decisive action against the increasing Israeli Occupation as well as Israel’s apartheid policies’
Yesterday the BRICS Memorandum on Palestine was officially submitted to the forum of emerging market powers at the 5th BRICS Summit (BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) currently taking place in Durban, South Africa. The memorandum, represents the will of South African civil society and political organizations including South Africa’s largest trade union federation, COSATU.
Another bad review: ‘Obama takes Palestinians for granted’
Palestinians should never trust Obama after his embarrassing truckling to “Bibi” last week, argues MJ Rosenberg, now at the Washington Spectator
Breakthrough: Mennonites divest from ‘companies that support Israel’s occupation’
Yesterday the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) United States announced that its board of directors had voted unanimously on March 16 to divest the organization’s direct holdings in “companies that support Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.”
Hat’s off to Anthony Lewis, who in ’99 understood that Israel wanted a Palestinian Bantustan
Who is carrying on Anthony Lewis’s NYT legacy of concern for Palestinian human and civil rights?
Lessons learned from a box of matzoh
Trader Joe’s sells matzoh made in Jerusalem, possibly in occupied territory, violating boycott principles and carrying a huge carbon footprint too
Obama’s speech was racist — a Palestinian student explains to ‘USA Today’
USA Today exposes racism in Obama’s speech: “The entire speech was Jewish country, Jewish, Jewish Jewish,” said Randa Sharkiya. “All I kept thinking was, ‘What about us?'”
‘Better a battered dream than no dream at all’ –liberal Zionist lament
At what point does maintaining a dream about a place you don’t have to live in amount to arrogance?