Author: Kairos Puget Sound

Climate justice and human rights activists chain themselves to entrance of Israeli quarry to protest the theft of Palestinian land and destruction of local ecology.

By Oren Ziv  | +972 Magazine |  Nov 22, 2020

‘We are here to demand climate justice for all who live in this land, humans and animals, Palestinians and Israelis, women and men, from every group, from every identity,’
— Ya’ara Peretz, one of the leaders of the action

Dozens of climate justice and human rights activists blocked the entrance to an Israeli quarry in the occupied West Bank Sunday morning to protest a plan to build a new industrial zone in the area. According to the protesters, the expansion plan of the HeidelbergCement Quarry, which will also include the building of a new Israeli cemetery, will destroy the ecological corridor of the center of the country and deepen the annexation of the West Bank.

The activists, which belong to the “One Climate” group, chained themselves to the entry of the quarry and unfurled a giant sign that read “Stop the Destruction,” while preventing the entry and exit of trucks transporting cement across the country. The action caused a large traffic jam of trucks outside the quarry, with one driver estimating that the protest led to over NIS 100,000 in losses for the company.

Continue reading “Eight climate activists arrested in protest against new West Bank industrial zone”

Israel continues to treat the West Bank as its own leaving Palestinians with no almost no way to build legally.

By B’Tselem staff |  Nov 4, 2020

While the world deals with the coronavirus crisis, Israel has devoted time and effort to harassing Palestinians instead of helping protected residents living under its control.

In the midst of an unprecedented health and economic crisis, more Palestinians in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) lost their homes in the first 10 months of 2020 alone than in any full year since 2016 – the highest year on record since B’Tselem started collecting this data. As a result of Israel’s policy, 798 Palestinians have already lost their homes in 2020, including 404 minors who lived in 218 homes – compared to 677 Palestinians in all of 2019, 397 in 2018 and 521 in 2017.

Israeli authorities also demolished 301 Palestinian non-residential structures and infrastructure facilities in the first ten months of 2020. This includes humanitarian infrastructure such as water cisterns and pipes and electricity grids, which are crucial to sanitation and health at this time.

Continue reading “In pandemic, of all times: Number of Palestinians Israel has left homeless hits four-year record”

Past presidents have a unique position to see abuses of power and use their platform to call out these abuses.

By Nasim Ahmed |  Middle East Monitor |  Nov 16, 2020

It would be almost politically suicidal for members of Congress to espouse a balanced position between Israel and Palestine.
— Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the USA

Upon leaving office, US Presidents have, on occasion, mustered the courage to speak their mind about America’s relationship with Israel and the influence of the Zionist lobby in Washington. Jimmy Carter is perhaps best known for this. The 39th President of the USA, despite his role in mediating the 1979 Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, was denounced as an anti-Semite following the publication of his 2006 book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, which went on to become a New York Times bestseller.

After a fierce backlash, Carter explained why it was so difficult for US politicians to discuss America’s relationship with Israel and the policies of the Zionist state in an honest fashion. “It would be almost politically suicidal for members of Congress to espouse a balanced position between Israel and Palestine,” he wrote in the Guardian at the time. “Very few would deign to visit the Palestinian cities of Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron, Gaza City or Bethlehem and talk to the beleaguered residents.” He urged his fellow Americans to know the facts about the “abominable oppression of the Palestinians.”

Continue reading “Obama follows in Jimmy Carter’s footsteps and speaks out against Israel and AIPAC”

The secretary of State’s decision would address certain organizations’ such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam as anti-Semitic toward the Israeli government.

By Nahal Toosi |  Politico  |  Nov 11, 2020

…supporters of the organizations said that by targeting them, Pompeo would send a major signal to dictators and other leaders overseas that it’s acceptable to crack down on these and similar organizations

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has decided to establish a new process by which the United States can declare groups, including NGOs, to be anti-Semitic.

For now, however, Pompeo won’t be naming any names.

The decision is a compromise. Three people familiar with the issue confirmed it, but noted that Pompeo could still change his mind and hold off on an announcement.

Continue reading “Pompeo expected to announce process for U.S. to label groups anti-Semitic”

Concern over keeping Israel’s Qualitative Military Edge has led to proposal giving Israel veto power over US arms sales.

By Grant Smith  | Antiwar.com |  Nov 10, 2020

Today, as the US offers additional advanced weapons to regimes successfully coerced to establish ties with Israel, someday those countries could stop obeying US marching orders and respond to popular demands for change, like Egypt during the Arab Spring. That is a problem, according to pro-Israel thinkers.

The United Arab Emirates bid to purchase F-35 multirole stealth aircraft caused a firestorm among Israel lobby operatives, pundits, and congressional fellow travelers. They say the US has an obligation to maintain Israel’s “Qualitative Military Edge” (QME) if not Israel’s “Qualitative AND Quantitative Military Edge.”  QME is a doctrine that US war planners originally conceived to assess and counter the Warsaw Pact’s numerical troop advantage over US and allied forces stationed in Europe. The US was thought to need a qualitative advantage in military systems in order to counter the imbalance.

Continue reading “The Israel lobby’s ‘QME’ scam”

The core components of racism remain intact when the communities most impacted are marginalized.

By Benay Blend |  The Palestine Chronicle  |  Nov 9, 2020

‘The people who get the most blame have the least to do with how this whole process goes.’
— Onyesonwu Chatoyer, organizer for the All African People’s Revolutionary Party—New Mexico

Reflecting on the 2020 election, Onyesonwu Chatoyer wrote: “One thing I’ve been reflecting on today is how much election discourse is just poor and working-class people” blaming each other “for not participating in the right way.” An organizer for the All African People’s Revolutionary Party—New Mexico, Chatoyer understands that “the people who get the most blame have the least to do with how this whole process goes.”

While on the other hand, it is “the people who control it all—and who create the ideological, material, and political conditions that drive how poor people participate—” who get virtually no reproach at all.

Continue reading “From Palestine to Turtle Island: When all else fails oppressors blame the victim”

The Bishops Conference of Norway makes a strong statement against Christian Zionism’s use of the Bible to legitimize oppression or human rights violations.

By Church of Norway Bishops Conference  | Church of Norway | Nov 2, 2020

‘The promises of the Old Testament concerning the Jewish people and the land, cannot be used to legitimize the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes or their rights,’
— The Church of Norway Bishops Conference

In a statement on Christian Zionism released on 30 October, the Church of Norway Bishops Conference said Christian Zionism is “theologically unacceptable and incompatible with human rights.”

A just and sustainable peace in Israel and Palestine must respect international law and safeguard the security and rights of both peoples, the statement notes.

Continue reading “Church of Norway: Christian Zionism is ‘theologically unacceptable’”

Israel’s diplomatic normalization efforts with Arab countries has accompanied growing authoritarianism and there might be more to come.

By Peter Beinart | Jewish Currents | Oct 26, 2020

To implement normalization agreements, therefore, Netanyahu and Trump need their Arab partners to quash domestic dissent.

On October 23rd, Donald Trump announced that Sudan would begin the process of normalizing relations with Israel. The declaration, which was part of a deal to remove Sudan from the US list of state sponsors of terror, follows last month’s pledges by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to recognize the Jewish state. Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have claimed that those peace deals—dubbed “The Abraham Accords”—will promote “human dignity and freedom” in the Middle East.

Twelve days after the Abraham Accords were signed, a poet named Dhabiya Khamis tried to exercise her freedom to leave the UAE. Her government barred her from boarding the plane. “The ban is probably because of my announced opinion against Zionism and normalization,” Khamis declared. “I fear for my freedom and life from being threatened and arrested.” Those fears were well-founded. According to a report in Middle East Monitor, “scores of Emiratis, Palestinians and Jordanians living in the UAE” had already been jailed “for opposing Abu-Dhabi’s peace deal with Israel.”

Continue reading “Israel’s Repressive Diplomacy”