Category: News

By blurring the line between combatants and civilians, Israel justifies its repression of Palestinians — and decries all resistance to it as “terrorism.”

By Orly Noy | +972 Magazine | Sept 6, 2022

When it comes to the Palestinian struggle, Israel chooses to have its cake and eat it too: to kill Palestinians as combatants, while jailing them as civilians, not as prisoners of war, as is required by international law.

The shooting at a soldiers’ bus on Sunday in the Jordan Valley, in the occupied West Bank, sent Israel’s military reporters and security commentators rushing to the news studios in familiar fashion. Accordingly, everyone used the same vocabulary to describe what happened: the Palestinian shooters were defined in all of the reports as “terrorists,” while the event itself was a “terrorist attack.”

And yet, none of the reports I saw on the various channels mentioned the basic fact that the shooting happened in occupied territory. The Israeli media avoids making the crucial distinction between an action directed against soldiers and an action directed against civilians; just like the regime it serves, in the eyes of the vast majority of the Israeli media there is no Palestinian struggle that is not inherently defined as terrorism, be it armed or unarmed.

Continue reading “A soldier is not a civilian”

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”

A new report from Emek Shaveh shows how Israeli settlers and the government use archeological projects to advance the annexation of Palestinian land.

By Jeff Wright |  Mondoweiss | Sept 4, 2022

“the ruins of the past have become a political tool in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict… [we] work to challenge those who use archaeological sites to dispossess disenfranchised communities.”
— Emek Shaveh, Israeli NGO website

In its 18-page biannual report released last week, Emek Shaveh documents the plans of Israeli government bodies and settler organizations it says are “designed to change the demographic and historic character of East Jerusalem.” The report also details “a widespread effort [in the West Bank] to crack down on Palestinian construction, agricultural activity and the development of heritage sites.

”Settlers and government bodies seize land or assume control, the report charges, “under the pretext of archeological research or the development of historic sites for the public benefit.” Continue reading “How Israeli settlers use archeology to displace Palestinians from their land “

For liberal Jewish readers abroad, the front-row seat that Haaretz English provides to a less rose-tinted reality of Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is discomfiting – and compelling.

By Dov Waxman | Haaretz | Sept 8, 2022

Committed to journalistic independence…Haaretz English has consistently delivered unvarnished reporting and unrestrained opinion, in stark contrast to the rose-colored hasbara (public diplomacy/propaganda) of the Israeli government, which is all too often echoed in much of the Israeli and Jewish press.

When the English edition of Haaretz was first published in September 1997, Benjamin Netanyahu was prime minister of Israel, for the first time. A quarter-century later, he looks likely to become prime minister again, for the seventh time.

But while Netanyahu continues to dominate Israeli politics, in many other respects – both positive and negative – Israel has significantly changed since Haaretz English first appeared.

Continue reading “Opinion: Haaretz English at 25: Diaspora Jews Meet Israel’s Gritty Reality”

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”

By Ramona Wadi |  Middle East Monitor | Sept 1, 2022

“It would be hard to explain that in addition to being reluctant to hold Israel accountable for destroying the two-state solution before our eyes, you would also oppose a positive way that contributes to saving the two-state solution, which is the official policy of the United States,”
— Riyad Mansour, Palestinian Ambassador to the UN

The Palestinian Authority is once again seeking full membership of the UN, and the US has already expressed its opposition. The two-state compromise continues to form the premise for the arguments both for and against UN membership, as presented by the PA and the US respectively. However, the PA’s political decision-making is so fragmented, that its arguments in favour of the two-state compromise only strengthen those within the international community, and in this case the US, who oppose Palestine becoming a full UN member state.

Continue reading “The two-state compromise drives arguments for and against Palestine’s UN membership”

Settler violence in Hebron exposes the true colonial face of the Zionist project, and the world cannot sit idly by while it continues.

By Mella Jongebloed | Mondoweiss | Aug 27, 2022

As Israel tries to prevent tourists from traveling to the West Bank by scaring them off, it is my duty to bear witness to what I have seen

A group of eleven young settlers pass by, aged somewhere between fifteen and eighteen. Two soldiers walk with them on foot and a military vehicle drives beside them. Along the side of the road are outposts where soldiers have their guns ready at any time. The settlers say something to us in Hebrew that we don’t understand, their faces show an arrogance that does not match their age. A few meters down the road, we see one of them spitting on a Palestinian man who sits on the staircase in front of his house. When we pass the man, we reckon he is mute. He mumbles unintelligible words, points with his arms at the settlers, seemingly upset but not able to tell what happened.

Continue reading “Illegal kings on Palestinian land”

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”

Sources say report shows CIA unable to find evidence to support Israeli claim, but finding does not prompt US rebuttal.

By Isaac Scher | The Guardian | Aug 22, 2022

…“the United States should very clearly call on the Israeli government to reverse these designations, and to allow these organizations to continue their vital work,”
— Omar Shakir, Israel/Palestine director of Human Rights Watch

A classified CIA report shows the agency was unable to find any evidence to support Israel’s decision to label six prominent Palestinian NGOs as “terrorist organizations”.

In October, Israel labeled as terror groups Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Al-Haq, the Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defense for Children International–Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, and the Union of Palestinian Women Committees.

Continue reading “CIA unable to corroborate Israel’s ‘terror’ label for Palestinian rights groups”