HolyLandJustice.org

Tue, Mar 27, 2018Thu, Mar 22, 2018

Interfaith activities improve ties between Jews and Muslims

ap100911032355-e1427985635754 — Sheik Imam Mohammed Shchata and Rabbi Albert Gabbi talk during a public assembly for religious tolerance on Sep 11, 2010, in Philadelphia. (photo: Joseph Kaczmarek / AP)

Frequent contact created a sense that the two religions were more similar, more inclusive, more evolving, and more modern.

By Jewish Telegraph Agency | Mar 21, 2018

“Muslim-Jewish relations are thought to be in conflict but this study shows that they are in a state of cooperation. This is the first definitive study of its kind to quantify that, with cooperation and dialogue between the two groups, we are stronger together.”
— Rabbi Marc Schneier, President of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding

The more that American Jews and Muslims interact with each other, the more likely they are to see the two faiths as more similar than different, a comprehensive study of Muslim-Jewish relations in America has found.

Fifty-four percent of Jews and 65 percent of Muslims surveyed in a poll for the Foundation of Ethnic Understanding responded that “Judaism and Islam are more similar to each other than they are different.” Jews who had frequent exposure to Muslims said Islam is more inclusive, more evolving and more modern than those who were exposed more infrequently.

Continue reading “Interfaith activities improve ties between Jews and Muslims”

Mon, Mar 26, 2018Thu, Mar 22, 2018

Why I stay in Gaza

22abusaifcolor-inyt-master768 — The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. (illustration: Michelle Thompson / NY Times; photo: ymphotos / Shutterstock)

Life in Gaza is hard. Then it gets worse and we think it’s intolerable. Then it gets even worse.

By Atef Abu Saif | The New York Times | Mar 21, 2018

[My best student has] been trying to leave [Gaza], legally, through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt for five years. But the border is closed much of the time — last year, it was opened for a total of just over 30 days. . . . The other exit is via Erez, into Israel, and then onward to Jordan. That’s an even harder way to go. Again, you need permits. Until recently you first needed a permit from Hamas. Then there’s the permit from Israel. And then the one from Jordan. My student has never been able to get even the first of those.

“Are you still living there?” he asks.

“Where else should I live?” I answer.

It’s the same conversation I have every time I catch up with this one Palestinian friend in France. Same question, same answer. Life in Gaza is hard. Then it gets worse and we think it’s intolerable. Then it gets even worse. . . .

“You must be tempted to leave,” my friend says.

When so many basic things are so fundamentally beyond your control, you sometimes do feel like giving up, saying goodbye to both country and past, and letting Palestine go. The problem is, Palestine won’t let you go.

Continue reading “Why I stay in Gaza”

Mon, Mar 26, 2018Sun, Mar 25, 2018

US blasts UN Human Rights Council over resolution condemning settlements

1-5937576-2377889818 — US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley speaks during a Security Council meeting, Mar 14, 2018. (photo: Mary Altaffer / AP)

Ambassador Haley steps up threats to quit international organization over its “grossly biased agenda against Israel.”

By Noa Landau | Haaretz | Mar 24, 2018

“When the Human Rights Council treats Israel worse than North Korea, Iran and Syria, it is the council itself that is foolish and unworthy of its name.”
— US Ambassador Nikki Haley

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley slammed the UN Human Rights Council on Friday, saying that “the United States would continue to examine our membership” in the organization following a series of decisions the council took against Israel’s policy in the occupied territories.

Sources in Brussels told Haaretz that most European countries supported decisions only after their wording was softened so as not to evoke immediate practical significance.

The US said it was losing patience with the UN Human Rights Council, threatening again to quit the international body after the organization passed five resolutions against Israel.

Continue reading “US blasts UN Human Rights Council over resolution condemning settlements”

Mon, Mar 26, 2018Wed, Mar 21, 2018

Were Palestinians wrong to endorse a nonviolent struggle?

1-5932805-2974013606 — A demonstrator protests against Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Nablus, Dec 29, 2017. (photo: Mohamad Torokman / Reuters)

Europe told us that only after we Palestinians endorsed non-violence and the 1967 borders would they act on our behalf. We did. Now they refuse to act, because of pressure from a rogue state — America.

By Saeb Erekat | Haaretz | Mar 21, 2018

By refusing to work with the only established international order to assert Palestinian rights [the United Nations Human Rights Council], the Israeli government gets carte blanche to continue colonizing Palestinian land, while the Palestinian people get the message that international law and diplomacy are useless in their quest for freedom, justice and independence.

This is actually happening. European countries, members of the European Union, itself birthed out of the ashes of the last century’s unprecedented atrocities, are currently putting pressure on Palestine not to demand its rights at the United Nations Human Rights Council.

This Friday, four resolutions on Palestine will be voted on, and some European countries are concerned about the political implications of any calls to hold Israel accountable for its systematic violations of international law.

The very international legal standards Palestine clings to — self-determination, non-acquisition of territory through force, and equality — are the bedrock of the European project.

Continue reading “Were Palestinians wrong to endorse a nonviolent struggle?”

Sun, Mar 25, 2018Sun, Mar 25, 2018

Tough on Iran, critical of “Palestine”: meet John Bolton, Trump’s new National Security Adviser

1-5937281-1832452920 — Former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton, Dec 2, 2016. (photo: Mike Segar/ Reuters)

“The two-state solution is dead,” Bolton once wrote, claiming that Gaza should be given to Egypt and the West Bank to Jordan.

By Haaretz | Mar 23, 2018

“Just as a matter of empirical reality, the two-state solution is dead. . . . As long as Washington’s diplomatic objective is the ‘two-state solution’ — Israel and ‘Palestine’ — the fundamental contradiction between this aspiration and the reality on the ground will ensure it never comes into being.”
— John Bolton, newly-appointed US National Security Advisor

John Bolton, who served as UN ambassador under President George W. Bush and was tapped Thursday to become Donald Trump’s national security adviser, has a long history of tough rhetoric against Iran and the Palestinians.

A vocal critic of the Obama administration, Bolton is strongly opposed to the Iran nuclear deal and is a known opponent of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Like Trump, he supported the invasion of Iraq in 2003. He has also sounded a tough line on negotiations with North Korea.

Continue reading “Tough on Iran, critical of “Palestine”: meet John Bolton, Trump’s new National Security Adviser”

Sun, Mar 25, 2018Wed, Mar 21, 2018

Israel moves to strip 12 Palestinians of Jerusalem residency

6e5e928074d24d2da079ba5def28c6f5_18 — There are 420,000 Palestinians living in occupied East Jerusalem, who are treated as foreign immigrants by Israel. (photo: Ammar Awad / Reuters)

The interior minister says he intends to revoke residency of Palestinians, accusing them of involvement in “terror.”

By Al Jazeera | Mar 21, 2018

“East Jerusalem is considered occupied territory under international humanitarian law (IHL) — like all other areas of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip — and its Palestinian residents are a protected civilian population. It is therefore illegal under IHL to impose upon them an obligation of loyalty to the occupying power, let alone to deny them the permanent residency status on this basis.”
— Adalah, a Palestinian rights group in Israel

Under a recently enacted law, Israel’s Interior Minister Aryeh Deri has expressed his intentions to strip the residency status of 12 Palestinians in Jerusalem, accusing them of being involved in “terror.”

The law, passed two weeks ago, gives the interior minister the power to strip the residency documents of any Palestinian on grounds of a “breach of loyalty” to Israel.

It will also apply in cases where residency status was obtained on the basis of false information, and in cases where “an individual committed a criminal act” in the view of the interior ministry.

Continue reading “Israel moves to strip 12 Palestinians of Jerusalem residency”

Sun, Mar 25, 2018Sun, Mar 25, 2018

UN Human Rights Council calls for arms embargo against Israel

1018316866 — The UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Jun 6, 2017. (photo: Denis Balibouse / Reuters)

The council approved five resolutions aimed at Israel’s violations of International Law.

By Tovah Lazaroff | The Jerusalem Post | Mar 23, 2018

“We continue to be alarmed by the treatment of Palestinian minors in Israeli military detention. We have also seen horrific terrorist violence against Israelis, which must be condemned in the strongest terms. All of this gravely undermines the viability of a two-state solution.”
— UK representative to the UN Human Rights Council

The United Nations Human Rights Council called on the international community to halt arms sales to Israel as it wrapped up its month-long 37^th session in Geneva.

It approved five anti-Israel resolutions, including one called “Ensuring accountability and justice for all violations of international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.”

By a 27 to 4 vote, with 15 abstentions, the UNHRC called upon “all states to promote compliance under international law” with regard to Israeli actions.

Continue reading “UN Human Rights Council calls for arms embargo against Israel”

Sun, Mar 25, 2018Wed, Mar 21, 2018

A Palestinian mother’s open letter to Melania and Ivanka Trump

qalandia-mom-and-kid — A Palestinian mother and her child walk past the Israeli Army’s Qalandiya checkpoint as clashes take place. (photo: Oren Ziv / Activestills.org)

Mrs. Trump, imagine yourselves in my position. What would you do?

By Dalal Erakat | +972 Magazine | Mar 21, 2018

Mothers are advised to tell the truth. That was okay until my kids asked if Israeli soldiers could enter our city at night and harm us at anytime. I did not want to say yes, but I realized that as a Palestinian mother I could not hide the reality of occupation from them. So I told them the truth. As a mother, I don’t want my kids to lose faith in me, but at the same time, I can’t stop thinking about how they are just kids: they deserve a decent childhood and upbringing away from all the violence and insecurity of the ongoing conflict.

Raising kids in Palestine is exhausting — not just physically but also mentally. For as soon as kids become aware of the reality surrounding them, at around the age of three or four, every Palestinian mother must find explanations to help them comprehend what’s going on around them.

Even a simple trip from the West Bank to Jerusalem requires a strategic plan, especially after Mr. Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Couldn’t Mr. Trump have declared Jerusalem to be an open, global city as way of resolving the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians? How do you explain all this to a four-year-old?

March 21 is Mother’s Day in Palestine, which is why I am writing to you, Melania and Ivanka.

Continue reading “A Palestinian mother’s open letter to Melania and Ivanka Trump”

Sat, Mar 24, 2018Wed, Mar 21, 2018

Israeli police arrest 8 for not preventing fatal stabbing in Jerusalem

1-5913510-4264817023 — Police at the scene of the stabbing in Jerusalem. (photo: Olivier Fitoussi / Haaretz)

Residents and market vendors between ages 15–67, had been brought in for questioning, and were arrested on a charge of failing to prevent a crime.

By Nir Hasson | Haaretz | Mar 20, 2018

“The Israel Police will complete the investigation and bring to justice those who could have prevented or limited the attack, which may well have saved the life of the victim.”
— Israel Police statement

The police arrested eight residents of Jerusalem’s Old City suspected of failing to intervene in Sunday’s fatal stabbing attack near the entrance to Temple Mount, the city’s police spokesman said Tuesday.

Those arrested, residents and market vendors between ages 15–67, were brought in for questioning to the police station on a charge of failing to prevent a crime, which is considered a misdemeanor in Israel.

Continue reading “Israeli police arrest 8 for not preventing fatal stabbing in Jerusalem”

Sat, Mar 24, 2018Wed, Mar 21, 2018

UN officials condemn arbitrary arrest of Palestinian children

29a2bf9886ee40209abb379ab7eb7711_18 — Hundreds of Palestinian children were detained by Israel in 2017, some without charges. (photo: Reuters)

UN reports at Human Rights Council in Geneva show Palestinian living conditions severely worsening over the past year.

By Barbara Bibbo | Al Jazeera | Mar 20, 2018

“Half a century of occupation has taken a heavy toll on the human rights of virtually every Palestinian, regardless of where in the occupied territory they reside. The feelings of despair among Palestinians in the face of these developments cannot be overstated. . . . [Human rights violations include] home demolitions and forced evictions, restricted access to services, threats of violence — including violence at the hands of settlers — restrictions on freedom of movement, and a strict residency regime for Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem.”
— Kate Gilmore, the UN deputy high commissioner for human rights

United Nations officials condemned the continued arbitrary detention of Palestinian children by Israel saying the practice has become “systematic and widely spread.”

A series of UN reports presented at the Human Rights Council shows how the living conditions of Palestinians across the West Bank and Gaza have dramatically worsened over the past year, and how children are bearing the brunt of the Israeli occupation, said Kate Gilmore, the UN deputy high commissioner for human rights.

ÆThe past year saw hundreds of Palestinian children detained by Israel, some without charge under administrative detention,Æ Gilmore said, addressing the council in Geneva on Tuesday.

“The impact of the conflict on the lives of children is entirely unacceptable. In this year alone, six children have been shot and killed in the context of protests.”

Continue reading “UN officials condemn arbitrary arrest of Palestinian children”