Author: KPSC

A news roundup on COVID-19 and other events in Palestine this week.

By Editors | Mondoweiss |  May 22, 2020

After a lull in cases over the previous period this week saw a slight spike in cases of COVID-19, especially in Gaza where the coronavirus had been kept in check until now.

The Latest:

• 602 total COVID-19 cases; 368 in the West Bank, 55 in the Gaza Strip and 179 in Jerusalem
• 16,683 Israelis have tested positive for COVID-19; 279 people have died
• According to a study published by Tel Aviv University, more than 70% of COVID-19 cases in Israel were infected by a strain that originated in the United States
• According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health: since the onset of the pandemic, 45,343 laboratory samples have been tested. At least 30,581 Palestinians are currently in quarantine at home

Continue reading “A possible spike in Gaza”

Analysts are doubtful Abbas statement will amount to much change on the ground.

By Yumna Patel | Mondoweiss | May 20, 2020

While Abbas’ statements have made the front page of Israeli, Palestinian, and international news websites, one major question remains: will this time be any different?

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared late Tuesday night an end to “all agreements and understandings” with Israel and the United States, and that his government would be “handing over responsibility of the occupied territories back to Israel.”

In an emergency meeting with Palestinian leadership, Abbas said: “the Palestine Liberation Organization and the State of Palestine are absolved, as of today of all the agreements and understandings with the American and Israeli governments and of all the obligations based on these understandings and agreements, including the security ones.”

Continue reading “Abbas declares end to agreements with Israel, US”

A Nakba 2020 resolution to make sure we do not go back to old ways of organizing which would squander the gains made in this moment of global upheaval.

By Nada Elia | Mondoweiss | May 14, 2020

…just as many are saying there should be no return to ‘the way we were’ before the novel coronavirus, so I believe our activism should propel us in an alternate direction, not necessarily ‘novel,’ but renewed, and more radical.

In May of every year, as Palestinians and our allies commemorate the Nakba, I tend to look forward, not back. I make “Nakba resolutions,” like others make New Year’s resolutions, and my Nakba resolutions generally revolve around specific ways of being a better activist and organizer for justice. This Nakba Day 2020, a full 72 years since the catastrophe began, coincides with the COVID-19 pandemic. And just as many are saying there should be no return to “the way we were” before the novel coronavirus, so I believe our activism should propel us in an alternate direction, not necessarily “novel,” but renewed, and more radical.

Continue reading “Abolition, Not Reform: A call to action on Nakba Day 2020”

From 2015 a good read about how the cultural appropriation of books, music, art, cuisine and dress have been used by Zionists as a weapon against Palestinians.

By Roger Sheety | Middle East Eye | July 14, 2015

…the theft of Palestine and its culture has two essential and interwoven components, the removal/erasure of Palestinians and a concurrent assumption of nativity or ‘birthright’ in Anglo-European Zionist terms.

Stealing and appropriating the culture and history of indigenous peoples is a typical characteristic of all modern colonial-settler states, but usually accomplished once the indigenous people in question has been eliminated, dispossessed, or otherwise seemingly defeated therefore making it safe to do so. The colonial-settler state of “Israel,” established on the ruins of Palestine and through the expulsion of the majority of its indigenous population in 1948 and after, is no different.

The Israeli theft of all things Palestinian, however, does not simply come from misguided notions of nationalism or childish pride as is often argued by Western apologists, but is rather a conscious political policy of the state that seeks to erase Palestine from historical memory, particularly within Western discourse. Indeed, the continuing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their historic homeland goes hand in hand with the theft of Palestinian land, homes, history, and culture. It is an essential part of the larger, long-term Zionist project of eradicating the Palestinian nation altogether, literally writing it out of history while simultaneously assuming its place.

Continue reading “Stealing Palestine: A study of historical and cultural theft”

Area between Bethlehem and Hebron is becoming the next annexation battleground.

By Yumna Patel | Mondoweiss  | May 8, 2020

‘The right thing to do is to allocate the land for Palestinian construction, but the Ministry of Defense is currently run by an irresponsible politician willing to cross any red line in the name of his anti-democratic ideology.’
—Israeli group Peace Now

Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett has approved the expansion of the mega Efrat settlement in the southern occupied West Bank with 7,000 new housing units — nearly doubling the settlement in size.

With Bennett’s approval, Israel’s Housing Ministry can move into the planning stages for the “neighborhood”, which sits on 1,100 dunams (225 acres) of Palestinian land, known to locals as al-Nahla, and to settlers as Givat Eitam.

The settlers of Efrat have been in engaged in a decades-long legal battle with Palestinians over the land, where dozens of Palestinian families from surrounding villages own land that they use for farming and agriculture.

Continue reading “Israel approves 7,000 new settlement units in southern West Bank”

No enforcement mechanism was ever put into place for the inhabitants of Palestine whose historic homeland was being unfairly confiscated.

By Ramzy Baroud  | Mondoweiss  | May 6, 2020

The establishment of that Jewish State… hinged on some vague ‘understanding’ that ‘nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.’

One hundred years ago, representatives from a few powerful countries convened at San Remo, a sleepy town on the Italian Riviera. Together, they sealed the fate of the massive territories confiscated from the Ottoman Empire following its defeat in World War I.

It was on April 25, 1920, that the San Remo Conference Resolution was passed by the post-World War I Allied Supreme Council. Western Mandates were established over Palestine, Syria and “Mesopotamia” – Iraq. The latter two were theoretically designated for provisional independence, while Palestine was granted to the Zionist movement to establish a Jewish homeland there.

Continue reading “100 years of shame: annexation of Palestine began in San Remo”

Conflicting promises made during war time has provided years of debate about intention.

By Philip Weiss | Mondoweiss | May 2, 2020

…the Balfour Declaration was the act of a colonial overlord trying to please an influential minority inside the country, a minority British leaders perceived to be Zionist.

Jeremy Ben-Ami of J Street has a video primer on the history of the conflict that while obviously from a liberal Zionist perspective (“the Temple Mount”), is good on the unfairness of Trump’s deal of the century, showing that Palestinian areas would be connected by a “spaghetti” of roads.

Continue reading “Balfour Declaration was issued to gain Jewish support for war effort, Ben-Ami explains”

Recently declassified FBI documents show Israeli interest in the election on behalf of Donald Trump.

By Philip Weiss | Mondoweiss | Apr 30, 2020

The affidavit shows that the FBI regarded these contacts as possibly criminal. The real question here is whether the American media or politicians will pay any attention to the Israeli contacts, even as the Russia hysteria mounts in advance of the general election.

Here’s a delicious story that is not likely to get any pickup from the American mainstream obsessed with Russian interference: evidence that Trump’s friend Roger Stone was in touch with high Israeli officials in the runup to the 2016 election to discuss efforts to help Trump win. One official says “we have critical intell” that can help Trump avoid “defeat.”

The declassified FBI affidavit is a smoking gun insmuch as it reveals an apparent willingness on the part of high Israeli officials, including those close to the “PM” — Benjamin Netanyahu — to interfere in the election on behalf of Donald Trump. At least one of these officials met with Trump in July 2016 at the St. Regis in New York.

Continue reading “Israeli official offered Trump campaign ‘critical intell’ to avoid defeat in 2016 — FBI doc”

 

Liberal supporters of Israel warn of Jews being overwhelmed by Palestinian births.

By Philip Weiss | Mondoweiss  |  Apr 28, 2020

… it is ‘important’ to consider whether Palestinians are becoming a majority in the land between the river and the sea, and in Israel itself…

The “demographic” argument for a two-state solution is the expressed fear that Jews will become a minority in Israel, and so the “Jewish people” will lose a claim to sovereignty.

It is explicitly a racial argument about Jews being overwhelmed by Palestinian births, or voters, and it is one that ought to be very hard to advance in mainstream U.S. forums. The scholar Ian Lustick lately confessed his shame at making the demographic argument for a two-state solution. It was a “deal with the devil,” Lustick said. “My mother would not approve.”

Well– here are two leading American Zionist organizations that consider themselves enlightened but that have recently advanced that unseemly argument.

Continue reading “Palestinians are a ‘demographic’ threat to Israel, say leading advocates”

The new Israeli government arrangement means Israel is now ready to move ahead soon with annexation.

By Middle East Monitor | April 26, 2020

Netanyahu described a US peace proposal announced by President Donald Trump in January as a promise to recognize Israel’s authority over West Bank settlement land.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced confidence on Sunday that Washington would give Israel the nod within two months to move ahead with de facto annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank, Reuters reports.

Palestinians have expressed outrage at Israel’s plans to cement its hold further on land it seized in the 1967 Middle East war, territory they are seeking for a state.

Continue reading “Netanyahu ‘confident’ Trump will allow West Bank annexation in two months”