Author: Kairos Puget Sound Coalition

Over 1,000 Palestinians could now be expelled from their homes in Masafer Yatta.

By Elisheva Goldberg | Jewish Currents | May 10, 2022

“the idea that the residents are trying to take advantage of the legal system when they’ve sat through dozens of hours of hearings and can’t understand a single word [because the hearings are all conducted in Hebrew] sounds like the opposite of reality to me,”
— Maya Rosen, an activist with the #SaveMasaferYatta campaign

LAST WEEK, Israel’s High Court of Justice issued a ruling that clears the way for the Israel Defense Forces to expel over 1,000 Palestinians from a cluster of eight villages in Masafer Yatta, a region at the southernmost edge of the West Bank. The court rejected the residents’ petitions, after 22 years in which the residents lived in legal limbo. The ruling was published on the court’s website at 11 pm on the eve of Israeli Independence Day, a national holiday.

Continue reading “Israel’s High Court rules in favor of forced population transfer”

if Israel’s endgame is getting rid of Palestinians, Palestinian Christians will soon be extinct.

By Philip Giraldi | The Unz Review | May 3, 2022

The United States has been the enabler of much of the change in spite of the prevalence of self-described devout Christians in Congress, many of whom ironically are vocal and even enthusiastic supporters of Israeli “security” policies.

A week ago I wrote a piece describing how Israel’s power over the US government is such that no American official will confirm that the Israelis have, and have had for years, a secret nuclear arsenal consisting of as many as 200 nukes. The situation is particularly odd in that the United States is on record as being strongly opposed to nuclear proliferation, except for Israel, and the enriched uranium that was used to create Israel’s bombs as well as the nuclear triggers were stolen and exported illegally from the US. Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself was reportedly involved in the thefts.

Continue reading “Does Israel permit freedom of worship?”

Readers should demand the media report what is happening around the world, without picking and choosing what they will report based on race and/or ethnicity.

By Robert Fantina | Counter Punch | Apr 29, 2022

Apparently, bombs are dropped on white, Christian Europeans, but ‘airstrikes’ are launched on Middle-Eastern Muslims.

The world is, very reasonably, horrified at what is happening in Ukraine. Russia is apparently committing war crimes and crimes against humanity as it bombs residences, hospitals and any other sites its warplanes encounter.

The headlines are jarring:

“Russia bombs five railway stations” (The Guardian).
“Russia bombs Ukraine Steel Plant” (Daily Sabah).
“Russia using cluster bombs” (The Guardian).
“Russia restarts bombing” (iNews).

These are just a few examples.

Continue reading “Russia, Israel and the media”

Arizona, Tennessee, and Iowa are moving to codify a definition of antisemitism that includes criticism of Israel.

By Isaac Scher | Jewish Currents | Apr 26, 2022

“They moved it this year by stealth,”
—Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace 

Yesterday, Arizona’s Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed legislation codifying the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism. It is the second time in as many years that Arizona’s Republican legislature has sought to incorporate the IHRA definition, described by critics as suppressing pro-Palestine advocacy, into its criminal law. The first time, in 2020, the ACLU opposed the bill for rendering some statements critical of Israel “as evidence of . . . hate crimes, including many statements clearly protected by the First Amendment.” Faced with significant opposition, the bill foundered.

Continue reading “Three states push to curb pro-Palestine activism”

Written in 2021 this article clearly expresses how a by-default Christian Zionist changes.

By Susan Brogden | chrisitanzionism.org | Jan 14, 2021

Israel didn’t disappoint, but I was as troubled as I was entranced by what I saw there.

Regarding modern Israel, I was once like so many American Christians. Born into a post-Holocaust world and raised in a politically and religiously conservative home and church, I was a reader who had imbibed Leon Uris’s Exodus and its inspiring story by the time of the Six-Day War in 1967. Although only 14, I remember Walter Cronkite’s somber voice as he reported on the outbreak of war, my awareness of potential calamity for the young Jewish state, and my joyful disbelief at Israel’s lightning victory. As I grew older and delved more deeply into the Old Testament and into Jewish history, my admiration for this ancient faith, with its rich and beautiful traditions, its bedrock principles of justice and mercy, and its survival despite diaspora and persecution deepened.

Continue reading “Why I am not a Christian Zionist”

The recent wave of Palestinian attacks on Israelis come as other options have been delegitimized.

By Isaac Scher  | Jewish Currents | Apr 12, 2022

Palestinian violence is a reaction to the “incessant pressure on Palestinians from so many different sources…”
— Khaled Elgindy, director of the Middle East Institute’s program on Palestine and Israeli–Palestinian affairs

Since March 22nd, five Palestinian assailants have killed 14 people in Israel in four separate attacks. Two of the attackers lived in the West Bank, the other three in Israel. The Islamic State, or ISIS, claimed responsibility for one of the attacks; the attacker in a separate incident was affiliated with the group. A member of Islamic Jihad, a militant group in the West Bank, carried out the most recent attack, in Tel Aviv. “The city shut down when he was on the loose,” Dahlia Scheindlin, a political scientist and a member of the Jewish Currents advisory board, said. “Thursday is usually a party night, but the city was totally empty. It was swarming with officers, helicopters, and cop cars in all directions.” The next morning, the attacker was found and killed.

Continue reading “The end of nonviolent resistance”

Residents hope the valley will become the nature reserve it once was and a lung for Gaza.

By Yasmin Abusayma | The Electronic Intifada | Apr 13, 2022

It’s not just that Wadi Gaza has become a dump. In order to get rid of the waste, people also burn their rubbish. The resulting smoke, however, can contain noxious gases…

It could be a much-needed nature reserve, a lung for Gaza’s imprisoned 2 million strong population whose movement is curtailed by an Israeli blockade that goes back over 15 years.

That, at least, is what the UN hopes as it embarks on a project to clean up Wadi Gaza, a 105 km long valley that starts in the South Hebron Hill, snakes its way through the Negev desert and dissects the Gaza Strip near its middle for nine km before ending in the Mediterranean Sea.

The project has its work cut out though. For years, the valley has been used as a garbage dump, one of few open spaces in an overcrowded strip of coastal land that, until recently, had no sewage system because Israeli restrictions prevented its inhabitants from developing their infrastructure.

Continue reading “Restoring Wadi Gaza after years of neglect”

How blocking non-violent change may strengthen those who support violence.

By Peter Beinart | Beinart Notebook | Apr 4, 2022

These dehumanizing arguments about Palestinians don’t make Israelis safer. They put Israelis in greater danger because, over the long term, preventing violence requires giving people hope that they can non-violently achieve equality and freedom.

It’s 2032. Russia occupies Ukraine. Moscow has fragmented Ukrainians geographically and legally. Some Ukrainians enjoy citizenship but face structural discrimination. Many lack citizenship and live without free movement under military law. Many others have been expelled and cannot return. Suddenly, over the space of a few days, Ukrainians begin murdering Russian civilians. What would we say?

Which, as you may have guessed, is my way of talking about last week’s actual Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians. In the US, the debate about Israel-Palestine is deeply exceptionalized. That’s a fancy way of saying that when we talk about Palestine-Israel we often ignore the principles we apply to other conflicts. So let’s imagine how American politicians and pundits might respond if these horrific acts of violence were occurring not in Hadera and Bnei Brak but in Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

Continue reading “How to oppose violence in Israel-Palestine”