Month: February 2020

UN efforts to protect Palestinian land from economic exploitation are failing, and exposing the hypocrisy of western states.

By Jonathan Cook  | Information Clearing House | Feb 18, 2020

The UN has even taken an extremely narrow view of what constitutes involvement with the settlements.

After lengthy delays, the United Nations finally published a database last week of businesses that have been profiting from Israel’s illegal annexation and settlement activity in the West Bank.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, announced that 112 major companies had been identified as operating in Israeli settlements in ways that violate human rights.

Aside from major Israeli banks, transport services, cafes, supermarkets, and energy, building and telecoms firms, prominent international businesses include Airbnb, booking.com, Motorola, Trip Advisor, JCB, Expedia and General Mills.

Human Rights Watch, a global watchdog, noted in response to the list’s publication that the settlements violate the Fourth Geneva Convention. It argued that the firms’ activities mean they have aided “in the commission of war crimes”.

Continue reading “Profiting from loss: how business in illegal Israeli settlements continues unchecked”

The Trump administration’s peace plan for Israel and Palestine embodies none of the ingredients of successful conflict resolution, including talking and listening, accommodation of core interests, and a compromise solution that the majority can support. It reads, not surprisingly, more like a real-estate transaction.

By Prince El Hassan Bin Talal  | Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation | Feb 12, 2020

‘It’s very clear that the overarching goal is to eliminate the Palestinian refugees as an issue by defining them out of existence.’
— Lara Friedman, President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace

AMMAN – It should come as no surprise that the proposed US peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians bears all the hallmarks of a real-estate transaction. This supposed “Deal of the Century” certainly embodies none of the ingredients of successful conflict resolution, including talking and listening, accommodation of core interests, and a compromise solution that the majority can support. And how could it when the most important partners in the conversation – the Palestinians – were notable only by their absence, having been forced from the room by impossible demands.

Shortly after Jared Kushner’s laudable comment in May 2018 that the pursuit of peace is “the noblest pursuit of humankind,” the journalist Robert Fisk asked the right question about Kushner’s plan: “After three Arab-Israeli wars, tens of thousands of Palestinian deaths, and millions of refugees, does Kushner really believe that the Palestinians will settle for cash?”

Continue reading “Where is the world for the Palestinians?”

One supports Palestinian human rights. One says he’d keep the $10 million per day flowing to Israel no matter what it does. Which is which?

By Kathryn Shihadah and Alison Weir  |  If Americans Knew Blog  | Feb 11, 2020

While it may be an exaggeration to suggest that “billionaires in wine caves” are choosing the next president of the United States, it may be that some wealthy donors have an agenda that they can advance in a wine cave event, while a teacher or pipefitter has little more to wield than a vote.

For over 70 years, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been the core issue of the Middle East, central to tragic wars – some involving American troops – and escalating violence. In the past ten days Israeli forces have shot dead nine unarmed Palestinians, seven of them teenagers. In 2019, 149 Palestinians were killed in the conflict along with 10 Israelis.

US Middle East policies, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, have been largely driven by the pro-Israel lobby in the US for many decades. Campaign donors like Sheldon Adelson have influenced Trump policies, while other billionaires such as Haim Saban have influenced Democratic ones.

The US blockade against Iran (which, under international law, constitutes an act of war), was begun by Bush and continued under Obama. The Trump “Muslim Ban” focused on countries that had been selected by the Obama administration and that had long been targeted by Israel

Continue reading “How do Bernie & Buttigieg stand on Israel-Palestine?”

 

From: Water Justice in Palestine <waterjusticeinpalestine@gmail.com>

Subject: Fact #151: Water as a weapon against Palestinians

 

Fact

This week, the Israeli military once again destroyed pipelines that supplied irrigation water to the West Bank village of Bardala. The village depends on agriculture for its main source of income.

Bardala was already suffering water shortage, due to Israel’s refusal to provide it with more than 100 cubic meters of water/hr. (The necessary minimum is 240.) 

Before Israel’s occupation of Palestine, Bardala’s wells provided more than sufficient water.

In 1974, Israel and its water company, Mekorot, closed Bardala’s wells, demanded the village’s residents pay to receive water from their own springs, and built several deep wells on Bardala’s lands for use by Israelis only.

In 2006, Mekorot further reduced Bardala’s water supply by 75%. 

In 2017, Israel bulldozed Bardala’s rebuilt water outlets and destroyed 168 meters of pipelines to farms.

A month later, Israeli soldiers shot at the village’s peaceful Right to Water march of 500

 

Sources

 

See our blog  for the article Trump to Palestinians: surrender and we’ll give you a pretend ‘state’ and water too.

Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine

Facebook | Website waterjusticeinpalestine.org | Twitter @WaterPalestine

 

Sources

 

See our blog  for the article Trump to Palestinians: surrender and we’ll give you a pretend ‘state’ and water too.

Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine

Facebook | Website waterjusticeinpalestine.org | Twitter @WaterPalestine

Martin, the journalist and documentarian of ‘Gaza Fights for Freedom’, is challenging free speech restrictions because of her support for a boycott of Israel.

By Alan Macleod | Activist Post | Feb 10, 2020

‘The hyperbolic notion that conservatives are the ones being persecuted on college campuses has made blatant censorship campaigns against people for criticism of Israel, or other progressive protests, go completely ignored.’
— Abby Martin, film documentarian

After refusing to sign a pledge of allegiance to the state of Israel, the state of Georgia shut down a media literacy conference featuring journalist and filmmaker Abby Martin at Georgia Southern University. Martin had recently released a documentary critical of the Israeli government called Gaza Fights for Freedom. Now she is suing the state, claiming the decision is a violation of the First Amendment. Along with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF), today she filed a federal free speech lawsuit against the university system of Georgia.

Martin was dismayed by the university’s decision: “This censorship of my talk based on forced compliance to anti-BDS laws in Georgia is just one level of a nationwide campaign to protect Israel from grassroots pressure. We must stand firmly opposed to these efforts and not cower in fear to these blatant violations of free speech,” she said.
Continue reading “Journalist Abby Martin sues State of Georgia over law requiring pledge of allegiance to Israel”

A former soldier speaks out about the two separate legal systems for Israelis and Palestinians. The Trump plan wants to make this reality permanent.

By Yehuda Shaul | +972 Magazine | Feb 3, 2020

And although I do not know what it is like to live under occupation, I do know what it is like to carry out that occupation, having served as an IDF soldier in Palestinian communities that Israel has subjected to military rule for over half a century.

In an interview on CNN last week, Jared Kushner, one of the architects of President Donald Trump’s newly-released “Deal of the Century,” stated: “The reality is that Israel’s there [in the West Bank], and they’re not leaving… I’m not looking at the world as it existed in 1967. I’m looking at the world as it exists in 2020.”

These remarks echoed Kushner’s repeated calls for Palestinians to abandon their history and accept today’s facts on the ground. Only this, he says, would make it possible for Palestinians to move forward to a prosperous future.

I would urge Kushner to follow his own guidance and take a closer look at the “reality” he claims to see.

Continue reading “Jared Kushner does not see the brutal occupation I helped carry out”

This situation has a name, regardless of whom one blames for it: apartheid.

By Ezzedine Fishere | The Washington Post | Feb 6, 2020

Condemning Trump’s plan and calling for resuscitating the two-state solution is no longer useful; that ‘solution’ has been dead for more than a decade. . . . Trump’s plan opened a gate for a powerful stream that will carry us toward the dreadful challenges of an apartheid state. The question before us now is what we all — Palestinians, Arabs, Israelis and the world — will do about that.

One didn’t need to read 25 books to predict that the Palestinians would reject President Trump’s Middle East “peace plan.” Palestinians have a reputation for rejecting offers, knowing quite well the next could be worse. They rejected the 1947 United Nations partition plan that gave them less than 45 percent of Mandatory Palestine, Ehud Barak’s “generous offer” at Camp David in 2000, and Ehud Olmert’s even “more generous” offer in 2008 after the Annapolis process. The world has grown weary of this perceived lack of pragmatism; many feel that, given their weak position, Palestinians should accept what they can get or “shut up,” as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman so eloquently put it in 2018.

Yet, without truly understanding the behavior and motivations of Palestinians, it is impossible to find a solution or even begin to manage the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The Palestinians have accepted other offers, such as the Security Council resolution 242 in 1967 and the Oslo Accords, which promised them a meager 22 percent of Palestine — at best. All the proposed solutions involved a loss, so why do they accept some plans and reject others? The answer lies in three things Palestinians care about most: a sense of fairness, the hope of living freely in a sovereign state of their own, and the facts on the ground.
Continue reading “Why did Palestinians reject Trump’s peace plan? Here are three reasons”

Statements from faith leaders across the world speak out about Trumps peace plan.

By Palestine Portal | Feb 5, 2020

‘It constitutes an ultimatum, rather than a real, sustainable or just solution. No just peace can be established for either Palestinians or Israelis with such a plan.’
— Olav Fykse Tveit, General Secretary, World Council of Churches

Last week the United States issued its much-vaunted “Deal of the Century,” titled “Peace to Prosperity.” Faith leaders and organizations in Palestine, the U.S. and across the world responded immediately with outrage and protest. “An insult to history, humanity, the Palestinian people, and the American dignity itself” reads the statement from Kairos Palestine. The Palestine Israel Network of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship puts it well: “This plan is not a peace agreement or even a reasonably framed blueprint for a peace agreement: Palestinians themselves have had no say in its design, and there has been no negotiation between sides. The plan is rather a diktat imposed unilaterally by the United States on behalf of Israel to further Israel’s illegal consolidation of permanent control over all the territory of Palestine, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River.”

Continue reading “A diktat on behalf of Israel: Faith leaders and organizations stand up to the U.S. Plan for “Peace to Prosperity””

 

A plea from Palestinian Christians to other Christians to stand up in the face of injustice against the Palestinian people and demand their countries to reject categorically the so-called ‘deal of the century’.

By Kairos Palestine | Jan 28, 2020

…President Trump did not offer anything towards this equality but rather consolidated further Israeli hegemony and Palestinians subjugation to it.

The position announced by the U.S. administration regarding what they termed as the ‘deal of the century’ was in fact an insult to history, humanity, the Palestinian people, and the American dignity itself.

The American-Israeli proposal is premised on consolidating Israeli control over all of Palestine’s land, making sure that the Palestinian people are subjected to this control, in return for economic promises that are closer to a deal for buying the people and their spirit with money.

This proposal seeks to legitimize the Israeli occupation and revoke the history of the Palestinian people and their legitimate inalienable rights, particularly the right of return for the Palestinian refugees and the right to self-determination in an attempt to eliminate the Palestinian question completely and definitively.

Continue reading “Kairos Statement on the American declaration on peace in the Middle East”