Monthly Archives:
January 2017

73

What would Anne Frank do?

Katie Miranda on

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world,” said Anne Frank, German writer, Holocaust victim.

44

‘We have nowhere else to go’: Bedouins say they will continue to rebuild as Israel carries out home demolitions at a record pace

Sheren Khalel on

Last Wednesday Mohammed Jahalin and his family were ordered out of their houses in the Jahalin Tribe Bedouin encampment west of Jericho and watched as the metal blades of Israeli bulldozers smashed through their homes. In 2016, Israeli forces demolished homes, particularly Bedouin homes, in record numbers and in the first 23 days of 2017, Israeli forces demolished 119 Palestinian-owned structures, leaving 177 Palestinians displaced. “They keep tearing down our homes, and it’s so expensive to rebuild,” he said. “But we don’t know what else to do, we are refugees, we don’t own land, we have nowhere else to go. Tell us where to go where we can continue our way of life and we can do that, but right now we have nowhere else to go, this is our home,” Jahalin says.

20

‘No Ban, No Wall’ highlights the common struggle in US and Palestine

Nada Elia on

US President Donald Trump’s first week in office far exceeded our worst fears. Nevertheless, as the orders came in, millions of Americans were ready. When, barely a week in office, Trump issued his Muslim Ban, cities and smaller towns across the nation erupted again in rallies and marches. One of the chants heard at the protest was “From Mexico to Palestine, All Walls Will Fall.” It is a chant that indicates an awareness of our connected struggle. And just as “Gaza to Ferguson” has entered and taken hold of American consciousness, expanding our understanding of solidarity and intersectionality, so “No Ban No Wall” and “All Walls Will Fall” must and will become part of American resistance.

0

Carded at Erez crossing

Alice Rothchild on

What the mainstream press leaves out: January 8 killings in Jerusalem were likely result of a young Palestinian man losing all hope as well as the ability to cope in an increasingly oppressive situation.

17

Why the Personal Has Always Been Political: an Iranian-American reflects on the Trump executive order on refugees

Noushin Framke on

Noushin Framke was born in Iran in 1960 into a family where politics was ubiquitous and permeated every layer of life. Her father was a political prisoner under the last Shah’s regime; he had been rounded up with many writers and intellectuals after the 1953 CIA coup. Now, she reflects on President Trump’s executive order banning immigration from Iran and how a family that has always been obsessed with politics is coping.

2

Free ‘The Hares Boys’ campaign produces free e-book on tragic first anniversary of sentencing

Annie Robbins on

In January, 2016, an Israeli military court sentenced 5 youths from the West Bank village of Hares — Mohammed Kleib, Mohammed Suleiman, Amer Souf, Tamer Souf, and Ali Shamlawi, known internationally as the Hares Boys — to a grueling 15 years in prison for manslaughter for a crime that did not even take place. A free 39-page e-book, The Hares Boys, From Palestine to Israeli Prison, tells their story and the history of Israel’s imprisonment of Palestinian children.

8

Protesters join immigrant protectors at LAX

Marcy Winograd on

California Reps Ted Lieu and Maxine Waters went to LAX yesterday to support the immigrant protectors in their demand DHS release detainees from “Muslim ban” countries.

1

Palestinian teen killed by Israeli forces during raid on Jenin refugee camp

Kate on

Ma‘an reports: “Israeli forces shot and killed a 19-year-old Palestinian Muhammad Mahmoud Abu Khalifa and injured several others early Sunday morning in Jenin refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank, after clashes erupted following an Israeli army raid into the camp. State-run Palestinian news agency Wafa said that Abu Khalifa was left on the ground for hours before paramedics were able to evacuate his body.”

4

Burying bad news in the killing fields of Yemen

Daniel Margrain on

Two years of Saudi-led coalition bombing of Yemen has culminated in a situation in which 18.8 million people are now in need of some form of humanitarian aid. Britain and the U.S. are implicated in Saudi war crimes, but the western press has largely ignored the atrocities.

93

Signs you may be a ‘normalizer’

Haidar Eid on

Normalizing oppression has always been one of the tools used by the colonizer against the resistance of the oppressed and colonized. Britain, France, America, and Apartheid South Africa are just a few of the colonizers who privileged one sector of the colonized population to make them willing propagandists for the colonizer’s ‘mission civilisatrice.’ Apartheid Israel does exactly the same. Haider Eid outlines the symptoms of normalization to be on the lookout for.

4

Yes, this is really apartheid

Alice Rothchild on

The Stop the Wall movement in Palestine began a dozen years ago and has transformed the international struggle: bringing people together based on human rights to end the occupation, end racial discrimination towards Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, and to support the right of return for refugees.

11

Trump administration has no comment on Israeli settlement boom

Kate on

Israel announced plans on Tuesday for 2,500 more settlement homes in the occupied West Bank, the second such declaration since U.S. President Donald Trump took office. White House spokesman Sean Spicer dodged a question Tuesday on whether the administration supports the Israeli government’s policy.

9

Thank you for keeping Mondoweiss going–and growing!

Tova Perlmutter on

Last month, we asked you to support Mondoweiss’s independent journalism and readers’ response was generous and thoughtful—both financial contributions and moral support flooded in. In fact, for the third year in a row, our year-end campaign set new records, with donations exceeding our $120,000 goal by more than 20 percent!