Month: April 2020

An updated report examining the groundbreaking 1998 work by Richard Curtiss, ‘The Cost of Israel to U.S. Taxpayers,’  published in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

By  Pamela Olson and If Americans Knew Analysts | If Americans Knew  | Apr 1, 2020

 The US has, in fact, given more aid to Israel than it has to all the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean combined—which have a total population of over a billion people.
— Richard Curtiss, retired Foreign Service Officer

The U.S. gives Israel over $10 million per day of Americans’ tax money, approximately $7,000 per minute. On average, the US has given Israelis over 7,000 times more than to other people around the world. And on top of this, the US gives Egypt and Jordan large aid packages on behalf of Israel. And there is more…

Continue reading “The staggering cost of Israel to Americans: The facts”

Home demolitions, attacks and harassment by Israeli military continues during the paralyzing healthcare crisis.

By Yumna Patel |Mondoweiss | Apr 1, 2020

 …the ’real weakness’ in the Palestinian’s efforts to fight the spread of the coronavirus is the Israeli occupation.
—Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh, who has taken the lead role in Palestine’s fight against COVID-19

When the Palestinian Authority (PA) first announced a state of emergency over the coronavirus in early March, an initial panic swept over the occupied territory, as checkpoints and borders with Israel were closed, and entire cities were shut down.

In the early days of the outbreak, which was initially contained to the city of Bethlehem, there was a joke going around between Palestinians that, perhaps, a global pandemic could offer a temporary respite from the terrors of the Israeli occupation.

But even as most aspects of everyday life have been turned upside down in Israel, Palestine, and the rest of the world, the one thing that has remained steady in the lives of Palestinians, is the presence of the occupation.

Continue reading “In the midst of global pandemic, Israeli occupation thrives”

A plea for action to help Palestinians in Gaza by lifting the blockade and immediately delivering medical supplies.

By IfNotNow | The Action Network |  March 2020

… 1.8 million people only have access to enough COVID-19 test kits for 190 people, meaning only 1 in every 9,473 Palestinians there can be tested.

In response to the Coronavirus global pandemic, governments across the world are enacting emergency measures in order to protect the health of their citizens and stabilize their economies. However, 1.8 million Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip appear to be on the precipice of catastrophe — and the Israeli government, which controls what goes in and out of Gaza, has a responsibility to act now.

Palestinians in Gaza must now weather the Coronavirus in addition to the punishing, 15-year-long Israeli blockade of the coastal enclave. The international community must do everything it can to protect everyone in the world from this pandemic — and this must include the stateless Palestinians in Gaza, whose lives are controlled by the Israeli military.

Continue reading “Demand Israel protect Palestinians in Gaza”