Author: KPSC

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Journalists protest Facebook’s suppression of Palestinian accounts

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Palestinian journalists protesting Facebook in Gaza City. (photo: @jscommittee / Facebook)

Facebook had been working with Israeli Government officials to suppress Palestinian voices in social media through censorship, removal or blocking of content deemed critical of Israel.

By Telesur | Mar 7, 2018

“[Nothing happens] to Israelis who publish a status calling for killing Palestinians. But if Palestinians post any news about something happening on the ground or done by an Israeli soldier, Facebook [may] close the account or the page, or delete the post.”
— Salama Maarouf, Hamas spokesman

On Monday, dozens of Palestinian journalists protested social media giant Facebook’s routine blocking of accounts from the Middle Eastern country.

According to Al-Jazeera, the media workers gathered outside the United Nations office in Gaza City with banners that read “Facebook is complicit in [Israel’s] crimes” and “Facebook favors the [Israeli] occupation.”

The protest was organized by Palestinian NGO Journalists Support Committee.

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Film: This is Palestine (Tomorrow)

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Pushing for Change: Mideast Focus Ministry Film Series V

“This is Palestine” brings us to the present day by exploring the impact of ongoing conflict and military occupation on the people who live under it. This film features powerful interviews with people who have lost homes, land, family members and friends in their struggle to bring changes during the 50-year-long occupation of the West Bank.

Date: Friday, Mar 9, 2018
Time: 7:00 – 9:00 pm
Location: Bloedel Hall
St. Mark’s Cathedral
1245 10th Ave E
Seattle, WA  98102
Information: Event website
Admission: Free

Event Details

Our concern is to help balance the limited and confusing media coverage of the Holy Land. We use compelling films as an entry point for reflection and discussion. As Christians, we respond to Christ’s call to seek justice and love the oppressed. As Americans, we ask: Can we reconcile this calling with our government’s massive financial support of Israeli military operations? We hope the time will come when Jews, Muslims and Christians will again come together in harmony in the Holy Land.

In this series, we see how people pushed to bring about a safe country for the Jewish people, and how today others are still push- ing for safety and change. Do our efforts for change lead to peace and justice . . . or not?

More information here →

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Israel slaps entry ban on Norway’s largest labor union

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Norway’s largest alliance of trade unions has fully endorsed the Palestinian call for BDS. (photo: Ryan Rodrick Beiler / ActiveStills)

A routine matter of racial profiling by Israeli authorities has spiraled into a diplomatic attack on Norway’s largest labor organization.

By Ryan Rodrick Beiler | The Electronic Intifada | Mar 5, 2018

“Unless and until LO rectifies the shameful boycott resolution and puts an end to its discriminating practices against the only Jewish state, its leaders should not expect getting a business as usual treatment from Israel,”
— Raphael Schutz, Israeli ambassador to Norway

Mohammed Malik, a Norwegian citizen with Pakistani heritage, had joined a trade union study tour organized by the Palestine Committee of Norway, but was stopped for questioning by officials at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport on 17 Feb. While all other members of the delegation were allowed to continue on their trip, Malik spent the night in detention before being deported and issued a lifetime entry ban.

During Malik’s interrogation, Israeli agents discovered that he was a member of the Norwegian Food and Allied Workers Union. He was questioned about his union affiliation and the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions’ (LO) policy toward Israel.

“My name was obviously the reason I was taken aside in passport control,” Malik told a LO-affiliated newspaper. “But they deported me because I am a [trade] unionist. I was thrown out because I am affiliated with the LO.”

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Chuck Schumer thinks there’s no peace because Palestinians don’t believe in the Torah

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Senator Chuck Schumer speaks to the 2018 AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington DC, Mar 5, 2018. (photo: AIPAC)

Which begs the question, instead of pointless negotiations, should Washington embark on a mass proselytizing program?

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man | +972 Magazine | Mar 7, 2018

“Of course, we say it’s our land, the Torah says it, but [the Palestinians] don’t believe in the Torah. So that’s the reason there is not peace.”
— Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), speaking at the AIPAC Policy Conference

Senator Chuck Schumer, arguably the top ranking democrat in the United States right now, believes that there is no peace between Israel and Palestine because — well, because the Palestinians don’t believe in the Torah.

Speaking at the AIPAC Policy Conference earlier this week, Senator Schumer shuffled his way through a list of clunky talking points ostensibly exonerating Israel of any blame for — well, anything.

It’s not about the settlements, he explained, aptly noting that the conflict didn’t end in 2005 after Israel withdrew a whopping two percent of the settlers living in the occupied Palestinian territories.

It’s not about borders, obviously, because Yasser Arafat said “no” that one time, Schumer told the crowd of people who had clearly been on the fence about whether Arafat was the bad guy in this story.

And it’s definitely not about moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, he preached, because . . . well, he didn’t actually explain that one. But I’ll agree with him on this point, considering that it hasn’t actually happened yet.

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AIPAC bars journalists from panel on press freedom

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A monitor announcing a panel on freedom of the press at the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington, DC, Mar 4, 2018. (photo: Allison Sommer)

The American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) barred journalists from a panel on press freedom at its annual policy conference.

By Joel Pollak | Breitbart News | Mar 4, 2018

“AIPAC has a long history of being wary of, and less than friendly toward, the press. Members of the media enter the AIPAC convention through a separate entrance and must be accompanied by staff to proceed to the main area where sessions are held — and, at times, even accompanied to the rest rooms.”
— Editorial in New Jersey Jewish News

AIPAC is one of the most influential pro-Israel organizations in the United States.

Allison K. Sommer, a journalist for the left-wing Israeli daily newspaper Ha’aretz, tweeted Sunday that AIPAC’s panel on press freedom — on which she spoke — was closed to the media. She added the hashtag: “#irony.”

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Israeli ministers address pro-settler event on AIPAC sidelines

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Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked at the annual AIPAC conference in Washington, Mar 5, 2018. (photo: AIPAC)

Organized by Israel’s Ministry for Strategic Affairs and a pro-settler group, the focused on fighting against calls to boycott products made in settlements.

By Amir Tibon and Jonathan Lis | Haaretz | Mar 6, 2018

“Refraining from visiting, talking, buying, and knowing each other — that’s bigotry.”
— Dani Dayan, Israel’s Consul General in New York

Supporters of Israeli settlements in the West Bank held an event on the sidelines of the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Washington on Monday, at the same time that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump held talks at the White House.

The event, organized by Israel’s Ministry for Strategic Affairs and the Yesha Council, an umbrella organization of the settler movement, focused on fighting against calls to boycott products made in settlements.

More than a hundred people gathered to hear Israeli ministers from the right-wing coalition — including Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Habayit Hayehudi), Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Habayit Hayehudi) and Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz (Likud) — all of whom expressed their strong support for maintaining Israel’s presence in the West Bank and for rejecting any peace plan that involves the creation of a Palestinian state there.

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Guatemala will move its embassy to Jerusalem in May

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Eighty-seven countries have embassies in Israel, none of them are in Jerusalem. (photo: DeAgostini / Getty Images)

Guatemala will be the second country to move its embassy to Jerusalem.

By Jenna Lifthits | The Weekly Standard | Mar 4, 2018

“In May of this year, we will celebrate Israel’s 70th anniversary, and under my instructions two days after the United States moves its embassy, Guatemala will return and permanently move its embassy to Jerusalem.”
— Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales

Guatemala will relocate its embassy to Jerusalem in May, two days after the United States is slated to make the same move, the country’s president said Sunday.

“It is important to be among the first, but it is more important to do what it right,” he said.

Morales first announced the move in late December, following in the footsteps of the Trump administration. Guatemala was one of nine countries to vote against a December United Nations resolution rejecting the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

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10 tips for travelling as a political act

Rick Steves with university students in Ramalah, Palestine. (photo: Rick Steves Europe)

Travel offers you the opportunity to broaden your perspective. When we implement that world view, we make travel a political act. Here are my top ten tips for doing just that.

By Rick Steves | Rick Steves Europe

  1. Get out of your comfort zone
  2. Connect with people, and try to understand them
  3. Be a cultural chameleon
  4. Understand contemporary context
  5. Empathize with the other 96 percent of humanity
  6. Identify — and undermine — your own ethnocentricity
  7. Accept the legitimacy of other moralities
  8. Sightsee with an edge
  9. Make your trip an investment in a better world
  10. Make a broader perspective your favorite souvenir

1. Get out of your comfort zone: Choose Managua over Mazatlán or Turkey over Greece. When visiting Israel, explore the West Bank. You can enjoy far richer experiences for far less money by venturing away from the mainstream.

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Arizona State’s ban on Israel boycotters tests DOJ’s free speech commitment

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A sign is held by demonstrators calling for an independent Palestinian state during a protest held outside the White House in Washington, DC, on Mar 4, 2018. (photo: Alex Edelman / AFP / Getty Images)

So far, the Justice Department has focused its efforts on free speech cases involving conservatives and Christians.

By Rowaida Abdelaziz and Ryan Reilly | HuffPost | Mar 5, 2018

“Universities have been a beacon of free speech and thought — that is what they have been for all these years, but only certain students are afforded that right to free speech.”
— Imraan Siddiqi, the executive director of CAIR-Arizona

A lawsuit against one of America’s largest public universities could pose a major test for the Justice Department’s commitment to campus free speech.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) filed a lawsuit in federal court last week against Arizona State University, accusing the school of violating Muslim students’ right to free speech and rights to equal protection by enforcing a ban on speakers who call for boycotting Israel.

The suit was filed on behalf of American Muslims for Palestine and its founder, Hatem Bazian, shortly after Arizona State’s Muslim Students Association invited him to speak at what is billed as an “educational event regarding Palestinian perspectives on Middle East conflict” on April 3.

Bazian, a senior lecturer at University of California in Berkeley, said he could not agree to the school’s speaker’s contract because of a “no boycott of Israel” clause that essentially bars him and others from participating “solely because they engage in and advocate for economic boycotts of Israel as a means to promote Palestinians’ human rights,” according to the lawsuit.

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Anti-BDS bills to feature prominently at AIPAC conference

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At least 23 states have passed anti-BDS legislation. (photo: Al Jazeera)

Annual meeting to push for measures that counter BDS boycotts.

By Dalia Hatuqa | Al Jazeera | Mar 3, 2018

BDS opponents have recently been dealt a series of setbacks, most notably the declaration by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights last month that it had identified more than 200 businesses, 22 of them American, that could be held accountable for operating in settlements.

Israel supporters in the US are gearing up for AIPAC’s much-vaunted annual policy conference, with measures to counter the widening campaign to boycott Israel and its West Bank settlements expected to feature prominently in the powerful lobbying group’s agenda.

This includes legislation that several Republican and Democratic Congress members have sponsored to curb the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which aims to pressure Israel into ending its occupation of Arab and Palestinian land.

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