Author: KPSC

By Ben Samuels| Haaretz | Nov 9, 2022

The biggest highlight from an American-Jewish perspective was perhaps in Pennsylvania…

WASHINGTON – Irrespective of whether they ultimately control the House and/or the Senate, Tuesday’s midterms turned out to be a major disappointment for the Republican Party. The anticipated red wave became a trickle, with extremist GOP candidates embroiled in antisemitism controversies soundly defeated across the country.

The biggest highlight from an American-Jewish perspective was perhaps in Pennsylvania, where Jewish Democrat Josh Shapiro triumphed over Donald Trump-endorsed Doug Mastriano in the state’s much-publicized gubernatorial race.

Continue reading “AIPAC spent a lot on these midterms, but it didn’t work”

The fascistic messianic right declared its grip over the Israeli Jewish psyche in this week’s elections. Now, a political crisis awaits liberal Zionists and the United States

By Philip Weiss | Mondoweiss | Nov 2, 2022

“There will be a third intifada,”
— shopkeeper in East Jerusalem

It was hard not to witness the death of hope in Jerusalem on Tuesday night. Those who held out hope that the Israeli system would somehow resist the right, and exhibit tolerance — that hope was dashed by the Israeli election, in which the fascistic messianic right declared its grip over the Israeli Jewish psyche.

Exit polls show the explicitly-anti-Palestinian party Religious Zionism at 13 or 14 seats in the parliament, making it the third largest party. When official votes are released, the party will likely be in position to put the largest vote-getter, Benjamin Netanyahu, whose right-wing Likud Party polls at about 31 seats, back in the prime minister’s job after 18 months absence.

Continue reading “Witnessing the death of hope in Jerusalem“

From the farmers of the South Hebron Hills under attack by settlers to the armed groups of Jenin Camp facing nightly raids, a new wave of West Bank resistance is building.

By David Hearst | Middle East Eye | Oct 10, 2022

“They are trying to present to the world that we are terrorists. Who are the terrorists? We are trying to stay in our homes.”
— Asharaf Mahmoud Amour, Letwani villager whose house was demolished

The village of Letwani is the end of the road. Literally. Behind it lies a settler road which starts in Jerusalem and ends in the South Hebron Hills.

In front of it is the Masafer Yatta, an area of 30 square kilometres which Israel declared as a military firing zone in the 1980s.

Masafer Atta’s 2,500 residents are involved in daily pitched battles with settlers and soldiers.

The morning I arrived in Letwani, Asharaf Mahmoud Amour, aged 40, looked calmly at a pile of breeze blocks. It was the remains of his house. A bulldozer had demolished it a few hours before. To his amazement, the soldiers had left standing the shed to the left and the chicken house to the right, both under demolition orders.

“I will tell you where we are sleeping tonight – with the chickens and the goats,” Amour said.

Continue reading “‘Who are the terrorists?’: How a new Palestinian generation is fighting occupation”

Many questions raised about a military operation against a civil society organization.

By Miriam Berger | Washington Post  | Sept 16, 2022

“…there is something about crossing the line for targeting the organizations that are responsible for criticizing centers of power. It’s the height of subjugation and domination.”
— Michael Sfard, an Israeli lawyer

The soldiers can be seen busting down doors and rummaging through documents. They casually take selfies and mockingly distribute business cards.

CCTV footage from an Israeli raid last month on the leading Palestinian human rights group sheds new light on the operation and challenges the official narrative about why the organization was targeted.

The Aug. 18 early morning raid on the Ramallah office of Al Haq, as well as six other rights groups, drew diplomatic backlash and international condemnation of Israel’s tightening restrictions on Palestinian civil society.

Continue reading “How an Israeli raid on a Palestinian rights group unfolded”

An Israeli delegation recently traveled to Washington, D.C. to pressure the Biden administration into accepting its terror designation for six Palestinian human rights groups.

By Michael Arria | Mondoweiss | Sept 14, 2022

“The Biden administration has repeatedly failed to take action and stand up for Palestinian civil society and human rights organizations increasingly under attack by the Israeli government. We have no reason to believe this meeting between Israeli and U.S. officials will result in a different outcome.”
—Brad Parker, Defense for Children International – Palestine

Last week an Israeli delegation was in Washington, D.C. trying to pressure the Biden administration into accepting its terror designation for six Palestinian human rights groups. “Israeli officials told me the delegation that went to Washington last week included officials from the Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency, the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Defense financial intelligence unit that was spearheading the designation of the NGOs,” reported Axios’ Barak Ravid.

According to Ravid, Israeli officials met with the State Department, CIA and the office of the Director of National Intelligence to present them with updated intelligence about the six groups.

Continue reading “Israel pressuring Biden to accept terrorist designation for Palestinian NGOs”

Statement of the World Council of Churches 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany.

By World Council of Churches | Sept 8, 2022

The expanding Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, especially those encircling East Jerusalem, are illegal under international law and threaten fundamental demographic and political changes to the region.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) looks to the Middle East region as the place of the historical origins of our faith where Jesus Christ was born, crucified and resurrected. The worldwide ecumenical fellowship has always sought to be in active solidarity with the Christians of the Middle East, who are living in continuation of an unbroken line of faithful Christian witness in the multi-religious contexts of their countries, making vital contributions to the vibrant diversity and development of their societies.

Continue reading “Seeking Justice and Peace for All in the Middle East”

By Peter Beinart | The New York Times | Aug 26, 2022

Defenders of repressive governments often try to discredit the human rights groups that criticize them.

Over the past 18 months, America’s most prominent Jewish organizations have done something extraordinary. They have accused the world’s leading human rights organizations of promoting hatred of Jews.

Last April, after Human Rights Watch issued a report accusing Israel of “the crimes of apartheid and persecution,” the American Jewish Committee claimed that the report’s arguments “sometimes border on antisemitism.” In January, after Amnesty International issued its own study alleging that Israel practiced apartheid, the Anti-Defamation League predicted that it “likely will lead to intensified antisemitism.” The A.J.C. and A.D.L. also published a statement with four other well-known American Jewish groups that didn’t just accuse the report of being biased and inaccurate, but also claimed that Amnesty’s report “fuels those antisemites around the world who seek to undermine the only Jewish country on Earth.”

Continue reading “Has the fight against Antisemitism lost its way?”

Influential Jewish organizations who denounce as antisemitic the reports accusing Israel of apartheid are a “threat to freedom,” Peter Beinart writes in the New York Times.

By Philip Weiss | Mondoweiss | Aug 28, 2022

Here’s the crucial section of Levy’s “wake-up call” speech. There’s just one state, and it’s apartheid.

It goes without saying that Jewish voices have greater weight on the Israel question in the U.S. discourse, and that Zionist voices even greater weight. Well, on Thursday and Friday this week, two leading Jewish former Zionists granted credibility to the apartheid charges against Israel– in the New York Times and at the UN Security Council — and both statements have gotten wide pickup.

The former Israeli negotiator Daniel Levy gave a speech to the United Nations Security Council urging powerful nations to wake up to the fact that their dream of partition is dead. And “the increasingly weighty body of scholarly, legal and public opinion that has designated Israel to be perpetrating apartheid in the territories under its control” is gaining traction among nations around the world.

Continue reading “‘NYT’ and UN Security Council platform apartheid charge against Israel”

The Israeli raid on Al-Haq left a church community in terror.

By Independent Catholic News | Aug 19, 2022

The community living inside the church compound felt unsafe during the assault: The sound of gunshots, stun grenades, and the smashing of doors caused terror among the families living inside the compound.

The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East has condemned a “shocking” raid by Israeli soldiers on the premises of their church in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, in the early hours of Thursday morning.

In the following statement released later in the day the actions of the Israeli forces involved in the incident are described as “a violation of international law and a terroristic act against the entire community”

Continue reading “Jerusalem: Diocese condemns Israeli attack on Anglican church”