Author: KPSC

By Edo Konrad | +972 Magazine | Aug 8, 2022

Counterintuitive as it may sound, Israel does not actually want to topple Hamas; it needs it to uphold the status quo…

Three days after Israel launched its latest military operation in Gaza, it still remains unclear what the hell the point of all this was.With the announcement of an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire on Sunday night, Israeli analysts have been quick to deem caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s “harmonious” campaign a success. After violently arresting Bassam al-Saadi, a senior leader of the Islamic Jihad movement’s branch in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli army put border communities around Gaza on lockdown for nearly half a week in preparation of an alleged retaliatory attack. It eventually began launching airstrikes in the strip, which were met with volleys of rocket fire from militants. The escalations have ended with 44 Palestinians killed, including 15 children, and over 350 more wounded.

Continue reading “What was the point of this Gaza war?”

The ‘NYTimes’ bias is clear as it attempts to blame Palestinians for Israel’s latest deadly unprovoked attack on Gaza .

By James North | Mondoweiss | Aug 6, 2022

“Israel is going the extra mile to provoke factions in #Gaza. Something reeks here.”
— Belal Aldabbour,  Palestinian physician

Belal Aldabbour is a Palestinian physician who lives in Gaza. He tweets from there as @Belalmd12. He’s an indispensable eyewitness to Israel’s latest attack on the besieged territory. But even more, he — and others on the internet — are demolishing the latest biased and dishonest reports in the New York Times and other mainstream media outlets.

Yesterday he tweeted, “Israel is generously (and provokingly) sharing graphic videos of the latest strikes in #Gaza, showing the very last seconds in the lives of the victims. One was lying down. Another was having a phone call.” And he then added, “Israel is going the extra mile to provoke factions in #Gaza. Something reeks here.”

Continue reading “The ‘NYTimes’ hides why Israel is attacking Gaza — Prime Minister Lapid is running for re-election”

By The Episcopal Diocese of Olympia| July 19, 2022

Growing concern among faith institutions mirrors the same conclusion in the secular world as human rights organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have recently concluded that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians constitutes apartheid.

The Episcopal Church voted at the 80th General Convention to condemn Israel’s occupation and oppression of Palestinians and urge the United States to take action to oppose Israeli laws and practices that result in unequal rights for two peoples. The resolution was initially drafted in the Diocese of Olympia and passed at its convention last fall.

The Convention also passed a resolution opposing the criminalization and penalization of boycott, divestment and sanctions movements as infringements of First Amendment rights. (Approximately thirty states currently have laws limiting people’s ability to boycott Israel.)

Continue reading “Episcopal Church condemns Israel’s oppression of Palestinians”

The Episcopal Church recently passed four resolutions that will empower the church to act on behalf of Palestinians.

By Ruth McCree | Mondoweiss | July 20, 2022

In calling for human and equal civil rights for Palestinians, the Episcopal Church joins many other denominations in denouncing Israel’s continuing dispossession and discrimination against the Palestinian people.

After 20 years advocating for Palestinian human rights within our denomination, I am encouraged and happy to see that our General Convention in Baltimore earlier this month my church, the Episcopal Church in the US, passed four resolutions that will empower the church to act on behalf of Palestinians.

Briefly, these call for the following:

Continue reading “Inching toward the tipping point in the Episcopal Church”

The Episcopal Church has completed three days of meetings yielding 4 resolutions  denouncing Israel’s treatment of Palestinians as unjust and a matter of moral and political urgency.

By Episcopal Peace Fellowship | July 13, 2022

“the President of the United States, the U.S. Congress, Governors, and State Legislatures to oppose legislation that penalizes or criminalizes support for all nonviolent boycotts, divestment and/or sanctions, especially on behalf of Palestinian human rights, as an infringement of First Amendment rights.”
— Resolution C013

The year-long delayed, and recently streamlined 80th General Convention of The Episcopal Church has completed three days of concentrated action and worship in Baltimore, yielding four reasons to be excited. During that time the Bishops and Deputies adopted an amended version of Resolution C013 on Freedom of Speech and the Right to Boycott. It also adopted an amended version of Resolution C039 entitled Justice and Peace in the Holy Land – Our Call to Action. And, it adopted Resolution D024, Conditioning U.S. Military Assistance on Human Rights.  And the House of Bishops also adopted the enigmatically titled Resolution A216, The Patriarchs and Heads of Local Churches of the Holy Land.

Continue reading “Recapping the 80th General Convention of the Episcopal Church”

Resolutions passed by the International Committee of the Presbyterian General Assembly 2022 bring a call to end Israeli apartheid.

By Scott O’Neill | Presbyterian Church USA | June 28, 2022

“Recognize that the government of Israel’s laws, policies, and practices regarding the Palestinian people fulfill the international legal definition of apartheid.”
— Resolution passed unanimously by the General Assembly

Right-wing Israel lobby interests seek to foment dissent among democratic constituencies.

By Michael F. Brown | The Electronic Intifada  | June 9, 2022

What it actually appears to be is a right-wing Israel lobby effort to promote Black supporters of Israel within the Democratic Party at a time when the party’s base is decisively shifting its support to the Palestinian struggle.

CNN commentator Bakari Sellers is aiming to remove from Congress its one Palestinian American representative.

The longtime Israel supporter is backing a new political action committee that is pouring money into a primary challenge against Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

Urban Empowerment Action PAC says it will spend “upwards of $1,000,000 on TV, digital, mail, radio and print advertising to support Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey.”

Continue reading “Israel lobby’s Black allies aim to unseat Rashida Tlaib”

38 of the most vulnerable Palestinian communities at increased risk of forced displacement.

By Henriette Chacar| Reuters | June 11, 2022

“They want to take this land from us to build settlements,”
— Wadha Ayoub Abu Sabha, a resident of al-Fakheit, one of a group of hamlets where Palestinian shepherds and farmers claim a historic connection to the land

MASAFER YATTA, West Bank, June 12 (Reuters) – Some 1,200 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank region of Masafer Yatta face the risk of forced removal to make way for an army firing zone after a decades-long legal battle that ended last month in Israel’s highest court.

The ruling opened the way for one of the largest displacements since Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Middle East war. But residents are refusing to leave, hoping their resilience and international pressure will keep Israel from carrying out the evictions.

Continue reading “Largest Palestinian displacement in decades looms after Israeli court ruling”

Members of the Israeli Parliament advance bill to ban waving the Palestinian flag at state-funded institutions.

The Times of Israel | June 6, 2022

“The Palestinian flag reminds Israelis that there is another nation here and some people don’t want to see another nation here,”
— Jafar Farah, who heads Mossawa, an advocacy group promoting greater rights for Arab citizens of Israel who identify as Palestinian

It’s not a bomb or a gun or a rocket. The latest threat identified by Israel is the Palestinian flag.

Recent weeks have seen a furor by nationalists over the waving of the red, white, green and black flag by Palestinians across Israel.

Yet the fracas over the flag tells a broader story about how much hopes for peace with the Palestinians have diminished and about the stature of the 20 percent of Israelis who identify as Arab or Palestinian.

Continue reading “Palestinian flag emerges as flashpoint as tensions simmer across Israel”

Israeli Zionists have used the genocide for propagandistic purposes in asserting their ‘right’ to historic Palestine.

By Joseph Massad | Middle East Eye | May 29, 2022

Palestinians and other Arabs were called upon to accept the linkage between the Holocaust and Israel’s “right to exist as a Jewish state” as a package deal.

The joint Israeli-Gulf NGO Sharaka recently boasted of organizing an Arab delegation to Auschwitz to commemorate the Holocaust. It included activists, politicians and media “influencers” from Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, occupied East Jerusalem, the UAE and Bahrain.

Founded in late 2020 after the signing of the Abraham Accords, Sharaka aims “to build bonds between young Israeli and Gulf leaders”. Around 100 Palestinian citizens of Israel also participated in the Holocaust commemoration. While the Arab delegates who spoke to the media failed to mention Israel’s ongoing colonial oppression of the Palestinian people, they did speak about how in commemorating the Holocaust, they aimed to strengthen Arab-Israeli relations and see “Arabs coming together with Israelis voluntarily”.

Continue reading “Why Israel refused Palestinian solidarity with Holocaust victims”