Month: June 2020

A letter backed by four prominent progressives in Congress was immediately rejected by pro-Israel groups in Washington.

By Ali Harb  |  Middle East Eye  |  June 30, 2020

‘We cannot support an undemocratic system in which Israel would permanently rule over a Palestinian people denied self-determination or equal rights,’
— US House Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Pramila Jayapal and Betty McCollum

Four Democratic congresswomen have put forward a strong-worded letter against Israel’s plan to annex parts of the West Bank, calling for using a “combination of pressure and incentives” to prevent it, including imposing conditions on American military aid to Israel.

The letter, led by House member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and co-signed by Rashida Tlaib, Pramila Jayapal and Betty McCollum, was met with immediate rejection by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on Monday, setting the stage for a confrontation between progressive Democrats and pro-Israel groups in Washington.

“Unilateral annexation in the West Bank would alienate US lawmakers and citizens. We cannot support an undemocratic system in which Israel would permanently rule over a Palestinian people denied self-determination or equal rights,” the letter, addressed to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, reads.

Continue reading “Ocasio-Cortez spearheads letter vowing to condition US aid to Israel over annexation”

The world’s frantic attempts to stop annexation remain stuck in the liberal Zionist fantasies that kept the occupation running smoothly for decades.

By Yousef Munayyer | +972 Magazine | June 23, 2020

The reality on the ground is that de facto annexation — as the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion on Israel’s separation wall noted 16 years ago — is already in place, thanks in great part to the liberal Zionist governments that built and maintained the occupation since 1967.

As the new Israeli government was being sworn in last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proclaimed before the Knesset that it was time to “write another glorious chapter in the history of Zionism” by formally annexing more territory in the occupied West Bank.

With just over a week away from July 1 — the date the government has pledged to begin advancing legislation to apply “Jewish sovereignty” over its settlements — liberal Zionist figures and organizations, in Israel and abroad, have been hastily pulling out all the stops to prevent this annexation move.

However, hardly any of these liberal Zionists are acknowledging that it was their own advocacy that helped to produce this “glorious chapter” in the first place.

Continue reading “Liberal Zionism paved the Israeli right’s path to annexation”

Jamaal Bowman’s apparent victory over Eliot Engel punctures the Israel lobby’s carefully cultivated mythology of invincibility.

By Josh Ruebner | Mondoweiss | June 24, 2020

Bowman’s apparent victory is not a setback for the Israel lobby–it is a monumental collapse.

In August 2014, I helped organize and moderated a gut-wrenching panel on Capitol Hill during Israel’s ferocious Operation Protective Edge, its 50-day spree of war crimes unleashed against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.

The panel featured searing testimony from Tariq Abukhdeir, the Florida teen who had been viciously beaten by Israeli border police while handcuffed the previous month after his cousin Mohammed had been savagely murdered by Israeli extremists, and author Laila El-Haddad, who had received the horrific news that very day that the Israeli military killed eight members of her family.

C-SPAN covered the event live, a move so disconcerting to Israel’s supporters on Capitol Hill that the network was forced to temporarily cut away from the panel to cover a rambling, impromptu paean to Israel delivered by Sen. Barbara Boxer to a largely empty chamber.

Continue reading “Apparent Bowman victory over Engel is a monumental collapse for Israel lobby”

Annexation would increase Israeli control over occupied territories and negate prospects of a viable Palestinian state, legislators warn.

By Ali Harb | Middle East Eye | June 25, 2020

‘Let us be clear, without the [U.S.] administration’s plan, annexation would unlikely be considered by the Israeli leadership.’
—letter signed by all 15 Joint list legislators, led by Knesset Member Aida Touma-Sliman

Palestinian members of the Israeli parliament are calling on US Democrats to “take a firm stand” against Israel’s plan to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank, and use “all the tools” at their disposal to prevent it.

In a letter addressed to Democratic members of the US Congress on Thursday, members of the Joint List, which represents Palestinian citizens of Israel, said annexation would be a violation of “universal values and norms”.

“We would respectfully suggest that this undermines American interests. We caution that any such move will destabilize the region further and will heighten the tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, and between Israel and its neighbors, notably Jordan,” reads the letter, led by Knesset Member Aida Touma-Sliman and signed by all 15 Joint list legislators.

Continue reading “Palestinian-Israeli Joint List urges US Democrats to stop annexation”

Comments about annexation indicate concern for public opinion and less about the lives of Palestinians.

By Philip Weiss | Mondoweiss | June 25, 2020

…annexation ‘will absolutely create challenges and tensions as it relates to the different segments of the Jewish population here in the United States and I think across the diaspora.’
—Jonathan Greenblatt, Anti-Defamation League

American Jews will “pay a special price” for Israeli annexation of occupied lands because we “are held responsible” for Israel’s actions, Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League, warned on Tuesday.

Greenblatt spoke in a forum opposing annexation because it forecloses negotiations for a Palestinian state. He said that annexation “will absolutely create challenges and tensions as it relates to the different segments of the Jewish population here in the United States and I think across the diaspora.” He went on:

Jewish communities around the world in diaspora, in Europe, in South America in South Africa, and here in the United States– I think we will pay a special price as we are often held responsible for Israeli actions and policies.

Continue reading “US Jews will ‘pay a special price’ for annexation as ‘we are held responsible for Israeli policies’ — Greenblatt”

 

A plea from a Palestinian Christian to other evangelicals to heed the words of the prophet Micah.

By Rev. Alex Awad  | Come and See | June 24, 2020

…evangelicals should end our affair with the State of Israel because Israel is behaving illegally, immorally and recklessly and these are not evangelical values.

For Years, I, a Palestinian and evangelical, have watched with pain the unholy alliance of evangelicals and the State of Israel. Evangelical infatuation with Israel began before there was a Jewish state in the Holy Land. British evangelicals, some of whom were Christian Zionists, helped bring the Jewish state into existence. This fixation kept deepening in the last seven decades. We used the Bible, our pulpits, publications, politics, finances, and our radio and TV stations to expand the territory and power of a Zionist state in Palestine. The average evangelical in the U.S. does not realize the volume of hurt and harm that the political might of evangelical leaders has wrought on the people of the Middle East and especially on Palestinians.

Continue reading “Should evangelicals terminate their affair with the State of Israel?”

Lack of reporting by the New York Times on upcoming annexation is a glaring lack of coverage for a major news media source.

By James North | Mondoweiss | June 23, 2020

Annexation is prompting division and anxiety among the U.S. pro-Israel lobby, and in the U.S. Congress, but so far the Times’s army of correspondents in the nation’s capital have not reported on any of it.

Annexation in West Bank Palestine, which Israel may decree only a week from now, could trigger the biggest upheaval in the area in more than a decade — but the New York Times is mostly missing in action. Editorial page columnists Thomas Friedman and Bret Stephens, both of whom have extensive experience in the region, have not said a word so far. Annexation is prompting division and anxiety among the U.S. pro-Israel lobby, and in the U.S. Congress, but so far the Times’s army of correspondents in the nation’s capital have not reported on any of it.

Continue reading “Israel may start annexing Palestine in just a week — but the ‘NY Times’ is barely reporting the story”

Israel subjugates its Palestinian citizens while being too eager to showcase their successes in order to portray itself as a western-style democracy.

By Jonathan Cook  | The National  | June 22, 2020

An assault by Israeli security officials on a diplomat sounds like an aberration – a peculiar case of mistaken identity…But that impression would be wrong.

An Israeli diplomat filed a complaint last week with police after he was pulled to the ground in Jerusalem by four security guards, who knelt on his neck for five minutes as he cried out: “I can’t breathe.”

There are obvious echoes of the treatment of George Floyd, an African-American killed by police in Minneapolis last month. His death triggered mass protests against police brutality and reinvigorated the Black Lives Matter movement. The incident in Jerusalem, by contrast, attracted only minor attention – even in Israel.

An assault by Israeli security officials on a diplomat sounds like an aberration – a peculiar case of mistaken identity – quite unlike an established pattern of police violence against poor black communities in the US. But that impression would be wrong.

Continue reading “Why an Arab-Israeli diplomat’s assault is no surprise”

There is concern that peace plan is really moving  things closer to an apartheid system.

By Philip Weiss | Mondoweiss  | June 19, 2020

‘The most dangerous figure pushing for this annexation is the American ambassador… Friedman…’
—Ahmad Tibi, Palestinian member of Knesset

Ahmad Tibi, Palestinian member of Knesset, spoke with J Street yesterday about the annexation plans for the West Bank that the Israeli government is set to begin in July. He said that annexation could bring “violence and deterioration” on the ground, because Palestinians are primed to react to the landgrab.

Tibi:

“The Trump plan is the worst American plan ever. It is not a peace plan. It’s a dictation. It’s a way to deepen the occupation. It’s unilateral. It’s a way to say there is no Palestinian nation, no Palestinian people. Strengthening the settlements. And with the annexation element, it is not only annexation, it should be called apartheid. When you are annexing these lands, you are creating more and more apartheid, more and more occupation. Netanyahu is willing to have this article alone from the Trump plan, which is a very bad plan, in order to keep his right base, he is thinking about the next election and that base….

Continue reading “Palestinians may react with violence if annexation/apartheid goes forward — Tibi”