Month: February 2019

Pitting marginalized groups against each other poses a real threat to Jews, Muslims, and Blacks alike in our country.

Jordan Goldwarg, Aneelah Afzali | Common Dreams | Feb 27, 2019

It is important to ask why marginalized community members are the main targets of outrage, and who benefits when marginalized groups are pitted against each other.

As an American Jew and an American Muslim, we find the cycle of attacks on Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, Tamika Mallory, Linda Sarsour, Angela Davis, and others deeply troubling. These attacks reflect a weaponization of the “anti-Semitism” charge against certain individuals (especially Muslim and/or Black leaders supporting Palestinian human rights), which turns progressive allies against each other and ignores the real source of physical threat to our Jewish (and Muslim and Black) siblings.

There is no doubt that anti-Semitism is alive and well. The FBI reported a 37% increase in anti-Semitic crimes from 2016 to 2017 (the most recent year for which data is available). Islamophobia has also increased sharply in recent years, as we face some of the highest levels of anti-Muslim hate crimes in our nation’s history along with hateful rhetoric and policies from the highest levels of our government (such as the Muslim Ban). And Black Americans are still victims of hate crimes more than any other group in our country, with a 16% increase from 2016 to 2017.

Continue reading “Progressives must stop weaponizing charges of anti-Semitism against critics of Israel”

Hardened by terror and frustrated by failed peace efforts, Israelis don’t want to hear about the evils of occupation or ways of ending it.

By Chemi Shalev | Haaretz | Feb 17, 2019

While the world might regard the occupation and Palestinian violence as chicken and egg, Israelis have managed to convince themselves it’s the other way round — It’s not the occupation that sows the seeds of terror and violence, but rather the Palestinian propensity for terror and violence that justifies and mandates continued occupation.

As of 2019, there are 6.7 million Jews in Israel, the occupied territories and Gaza, and 6.7 million Arabs, according to the latest official estimates.

Of the Arabs — or Palestinians, if you will — nearly 1.9 million are Israeli citizens, another 1.9 million live under a ruthless Hamas regime fixated on fighting Israel and 2.9 million live in the hybrid West Bank, under military occupation or the semi-autonomous rule of the Palestinian Authority.

An objective observer might surmise that Israel is caught between a rock and hard place, with a sword hanging over its head to boot. It won’t recapture Gaza but won’t release it from its stranglehold either. It won’t surrender the West Bank, for both religious and security reasons — and because Israelis are convinced that it would soon turn into another Gaza as well.

Continue reading “Israeli elections and the big, fat Palestinian elephant in the room”

Tight restrictions on foreign travel and frequent electricity outages are among the many obstacles facing the territory’s burgeoning IT industry.

By Josie Glausiusz | UnDark | Feb 20, 2019

For the 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza, freedom of movement is a routine challenge. And for technology entrepreneurs and business owners whose livelihoods depend on interaction with the outside world, that challenge is especially daunting. ‘Living in Gaza is like facing a wall, all the time,’ says Ali.

In January 2017, Bassma Ali, the cofounder and business manager of GGateway, an information technology company based in Gaza, was invited to Laos to take part in three weeks of training offered by Digital Divide Data, an organization that provides career development opportunities for underserved communities.

On the day of her departure from Gaza — the embattled 25-mile-long strip of land currently under a decade-long blockade by Israel and Egypt — Ali had to pass through three checkpoints to reach Israel. First, there was Arba’a-Arba’a (Arabic for “Four-Four”), controlled by Hamas, the militant Islamic Palestinian group governing Gaza; second, Khamsa-Khamsa (“Five-Five”), manned by Fatah, the secular Palestinian national movement; and finally, the Erez border crossing, overseen by the Israel Defense Forces.

Even though Ali had applied two months earlier for an Israeli permit to leave Gaza with the help of a representative from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), her permit only reached her at Khamsa-Khamsa at 2:57 pm, just three minutes before the closure of Erez. “I was running to reach the Israeli gate” half a mile away, Ali recalls. “When they closed the gate, I was in tears.”

Continue reading “Boxed in: The struggles of Gaza’s technology entrepreneurs”

Please join our brothers and sisters at the Mideast Focus Ministry for their First Friday Film series.

	Date:	Friday, Mar 1, 2019
	Time:	7:00 – 8:30 pm
	Location:	St. Mark’s Cathedral Bloedel Hall 1245 10th Ave E Seattle, WA 98102
	Information:	Event information here →
	Tickets:	Free Admission

Event Details

A compelling, ground-level immersion into the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time, Sky & Ground accompanies the Nabi clan, a large, extended Syrian-Kurdish family, as they painstakingly make their way from their home in Aleppo, bombed out by the war, to the Idomeni refugee camp on the border of Greece and Macedonia. Their goal is Berlin, where they will reunite with family members and seek asylum but first they must make the arduous and dangerous journey through Serbia, Hungary and Austria.

Continue reading “Film: Sky and Ground (Friday)”

The goal of Israel and the US is not to end the occupation or secure equal rights for all citizens of a single democratic state. Their preferred option is apartheid.

By Saeb Erekat | Project Syndicate | Feb 12, 2019

The US and Israeli governments may truly believe they are fulfilling a divine prophecy by denying the Palestinian people their rights, or they may merely be appeasing the extremists among their electorates. Either way, they fail to address what the endgame looks like, perhaps because they know the world will not accept it.

Since December 6, 2017, US President Donald Trump’s administration has recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, closed the Palestinian mission in Washington, DC, moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, and defunded humanitarian support provided by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA), among other steps. And yet we Palestinians are hounded by claims that the US really wants to pursue peace and that somehow the only problem has been our reluctance.

Nobody can claim that we did not engage Trump’s administration. We held almost 40 meetings during 2017, answered all questions, and put forward our vision of peace based on the two-state solution. But the US envoys always refused to engage in matters of substance. In fact, on the eve of a visit by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to Washington, the Trump administration broke its commitment not to take unilateral steps and announced the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Whatever the reason — ideological bias, lack of diplomatic experience, or both — the Trump team ended up destroying any prospects for the US to play a positive peace-making role.‫

Continue reading “Apartheid is not peace”

A split among Arab parties in Israel threatens to diminish Arab vote.

By Sam Sokol | Jewish Telegraphic Agency | Feb 22, 2019

The right wing wants to see us divided, and our answer should be to run together — against racism, against incitement, against the policy of ‘divide and conquer.’
— Ayman Odeh, Hadash leader

The big Israeli election news is the forming of new factions: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brokering a deal with a far-right group inspired by the late extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane, the center-left challengers Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid forming a joint list to break the right wing’s hold on the government.

But one sector of the electorate is facing the opposite trend: The Arab parties in Israel have split into two competing groups. The rupture is raising worries that an already disenfranchised minority will lose what little clout it has in the nation’s parliament.

As the deadline neared this week for submitting electoral lists to the Central Elections Committee, four Arab parties comprising the Joint List fractured. Hadash is now running with the Arab Movement for Renewal, or Taal. The more religious Raam, or United Arab List, has allied itself with the secular nationalist Balad.

Nearly 1.9 million, or 20 percent, of Israel’s nearly 9 million citizens are Arabs. In the 2015 elections, the newly formed Joint List managed to win 13 seats out of 120 in the Knesset with a boost in Arab voter participation to 64 percent — a significant rise over the 55 percent of Arabs who came to the polls only two years earlier, said Arik Rudnitzky, a researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute.

Continue reading “As Israel’s Arab political coalition splits, its supporters have more choices and less power”

Struggling with shortages of medical equipment and medicine, Gaza’s hospitals are unable to provide proper care for cancer patients.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi | Reuters | Feb 20, 2019

‘Like children anywhere in Gaza, or in the world, those boys have ambitions, they want to become footballers and we are trying to help them achieve that.’
— Rajab Sarraj, CEO of Champions Academy

Fourteen-year-old Moatasem al-Nabeeh suffers from a brain tumor. A new youth soccer team set up in Gaza for young Palestinian cancer patients has given him new hope.

“I am happier now, I play and I made new friends,” said al-Nabeeh. “They told us we can play, defy the disease and defeat it,” he added as he hit the pitch for push-ups in his bright yellow and blue uniform.

Champions Academy, one of Gaza’s biggest soccer schools, began setting up the team up five months ago and in February “Team Hope” kicked off. Its 18 players, aged between 12 and 17, have all been diagnosed with cancer, and compete against other, non-patient teams in the academy’s league.

Continue reading “New soccer team gives hope to young cancer patients in Gaza”

The committee’s statement in support of Ilhan Omar.

By The Bishop’s Committee for Justice and Peace in the Holy Land | Episcopal Diocese of Olympia | Feb 20, 2019

Every American citizen needs to understand and support the First Amendment. If we don’t, we are in danger of losing our basic rights . . . .

Ilhan Omar, Minnesota’s new US congressional representative, has been savaged for speaking the truth, but she is right about the influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on the politics and policies of the United States. There is no question about the growing impact of money and influence by special interest groups in this country. Unfortunately, AIPAC has been able to largely stay under the radar. Rep. Omar has put it in the spotlight.

Anyone who criticizes Israel is increasingly in danger of being branded as “anti-Semitic.” While no one can deny the existence of prejudice or discrimination against Jews, it is not “anti-Semitic” to question or criticize Israel’s unjust policies and practices with regard to the Palestinian people. This term is increasingly being used as a canard to stifle opposition to Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), the most promising non-violent means of protesting unjust treatment of the Palestinians. AIPAC is encouraging states to legally sanction any contractor who has openly supported BDS. Rep. Omar has had the courage to endorse BDS and point to the influence of the powerful Israeli lobby. Continue reading “We need to thank Ilhan Omar for representing ALL of us”

Please join our brothers and sisters at the Mideast Focus Ministry for their First Friday Film series.

	Date:	Friday, Mar 1, 2019
	Time:	7:00 – 8:30 pm
	Location:	St. Mark’s Cathedral Bloedel Hall 1245 10th Ave E Seattle, WA 98102
	Information:	Event information here →
	Tickets:	Free Admission

Event Details

A compelling, ground-level immersion into the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time, Sky & Ground accompanies the Nabi clan, a large, extended Syrian-Kurdish family, as they painstakingly make their way from their home in Aleppo, bombed out by the war, to the Idomeni refugee camp on the border of Greece and Macedonia. Their goal is Berlin, where they will reunite with family members and seek asylum but first they must make the arduous and dangerous journey through Serbia, Hungary and Austria.

Continue reading “Film: Sky and Ground (Friday)”

Two weeks later, the trees were again uprooted by Jewish settlers.

By Isabel Debre | Associated Press | Feb 19, 2019

‘Before coming here and doing this, I couldn’t speak intelligently about Israel. We’re saying that we can take the same religion settlers use to commit violence in order to commit justice, to make peace.’
— Tyler Dratch, a rabbinical student at Hebrew College in Boston

Young American rabbinical students are doing more than visiting holy sites, learning Hebrew and poring over religious texts during their year abroad in Israel.

In a stark departure from past programs focused on strengthening ties with Israel and Judaism, the new crop of rabbinical students is reaching out to the Palestinians. The change reflects a divide between Israeli and American Jews that appears to be widening.

On a recent winter morning, Tyler Dratch, a 26-year-old rabbinical student at Hebrew College in Boston, was among some two dozen Jewish students planting olive trees in the Palestinian village of At-Tuwani in the southern West Bank. The only Jews that locals typically see are either Israeli soldiers or ultranationalist settlers.

Continue reading “Future rabbis plant trees with Palestinians”