Category: News

Seventy years of nationalism and racism toward the victims is now receiving legal justification.

By Gideon Levy | Haaretz | Sep 21, 2018

From now on, two types of blood exist in Israel: Jewish blood and non-Jewish blood, on the law books as well. The price of these two types of blood is also different. Jewish blood is priceless, it must be protected in every possible way. Non-Jewish blood is terrifyingly cheap, it can be shed like water.

Even if it had until the end of time, Israel and the Jewish nation will never be able to compensate the Palestinian nation for all the harm they have done to it. Not for the material harm nor the intellectual harm, the physical harm nor the spiritual harm. Not for the plunder of their land and property, nor for their trodden freedom and dignity. Not for the killing and bereavement, nor for the people who were injured and disabled, their lives irrevocably ruined. Not for the hundreds of thousands of innocents who were tortured and imprisoned, nor for the generations who were denied a fair opportunity for a normal life.

There is nothing like Yom Kippur to express this. Israel has of course never even considered entering a process of compensation, reparation and taking responsibility. Nothing can be expected from an occupier that calls itself the victim, that blames everyone but itself for every injustice that it does. But even this isn’t enough for it.

Continue reading “Now Israel has a race law”

With the endless march of settlements and Israel’s continued impunity, a solution to the Israel-Palestine nightmare may seem impossible.

By Sandy Tolan | Counterpunch | Sep 14, 2018

[Oslo should be considered] an instrument of Palestinian surrender . . . . Clearly the PLO has transformed itself from a national liberation movement into a kind of small-town government. . . . What Israel has gotten is official Palestinian consent to continued occupation.
— Edward Said, professor of comparative literature at Columbia University

When I first traveled to Israel-Palestine in 1994, during the heady early days of the Oslo peace process, I was expecting to see more of the joyful celebrations I’d watched on television at home. The emotional welcoming of Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat back to Palestine. The massive demonstrations for peace on the streets of Tel Aviv. The spontaneous moment when Palestinians placed carnations in the gun barrels of departing Israeli soldiers. And though the early euphoria had already begun to ebb, clearly there was still hope.

It was the era of dialogue. Many Palestinians stood witness to Israeli trauma rooted in the Holocaust. Groups of Israelis began to understand the Nakba, or Catastrophe, when 750,000 Palestinians fled or were driven out of their homes during the creation of Israel in 1948. In the wake of the Oslo Declaration of Principles, signed on September 13, 1993 — a quarter of a century ago today — polls showed that large majorities of Israelis and Palestinians supported the agreement. Israelis, weary of a six-year Palestinian intifada, wanted Oslo to lead to lasting peace; Palestinians believed it would result in the creation of a free nation of their own, side by side with Israel.

Continue reading “How peace became a dirty word in the Middle East”

As many as 500 children are in jeopardy of losing services if the funding shortfall is not addressed.

By AFEDJ.org | Sep 2018

I am very much concerned and afraid that cutting off all American assistance, mostly in humanitarian aid, has hobbled the aid agencies that receive the funds, and more consequently, crippled the lives of Palestinians who continue to live in dire need and have fewer employment prospects now more than ever. This is unfair and beneath our compassion.
— Archbishop Suheil Dawani

Since the announcement in September that the US Government planned to cut $200 million in aid to UNRWA, the United Nations’ agency dedicated to providing humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees, and the news the following week of $25 million in cuts in direct aid to support hospitals affiliated with the East Jerusalem Hospital Network, we have been tracking the implications of those cuts on the institutions of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, particularly Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza City and the Princess Basma Center for Disabled Children in East Jerusalem.

While in recent weeks many European Union countries, as well as Japan, China, and Qatar, among others, have stepped up by pledging to address the shortfall, the impacts of the cuts could have devastating impacts on all sectors of society. Many thousands of vulnerable Palestinians, including women and children — particularly those in Gaza — are already experiencing the effects of these sweeping cuts. . . .

Continue reading “Cuts in US jeopardize healthcare services to children”

In a heartfelt letter, 17-year-old Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi tells the story of her arrest and eight months in an Israeli prison — and the struggles she faces as a symbol of resistance.

By Ahed Tamimi | Vogue Arabia | Oct 4, 2018

I have been involved in demonstrations and confrontations with the Israeli army since I was a child. Many criticize that, but why not criticize the army who places itself in front of children? Under the occupation, everything is a crime. People should not accuse us; it is the occupation that is wrong.

I am a child of the Israeli occupation. It has always been there. My first real memory is of my father’s arrest in 2004 and visiting him in prison. At the time, I was three years old; he has since been arrested on two further occasions. Last year, when I was 16, I was arrested too, during a nighttime raid, for slapping a soldier who was standing in our yard. I was sentenced to eight months in an Israeli prison.

Life behind bars was very hard. The guards woke us at 5:30 am for the count and at 8:00 am they returned to search the cells. Our doors opened at 10:30 am, when we were let out for breakfast. Afterward, we would go to the other rooms, where I could talk to my fellow inmates. There were around 25 of us. We were not allowed outside and walked around in a big hall for exercise. Along with the other girls, I tried to make study groups, but the prison administration did not encourage this and broke up the class. Instead, we read books, and I managed to pass my final exams in prison. Only my immediate family was allowed to visit me, and that was limited to 45 minutes through a glass barrier every two months.

Continue reading “Occupied childhood: A letter from Ahed Tamimi”

In secretly using funds meant for the betterment of the Jewish community to support a hate group like Canary Mission, the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco has betrayed our trust, and made us all complicit in this racist and McCarthyite censorship campaign.

By Rebecca Pierce | Forward | Oct 3, 2018

It is time for all mainstream Jewish groups to stop supporting Canary Mission, both financially and rhetorically. It’s time for them to redirect their resources towards efforts that atone for . . . the stunning betrayal of the Jewish communities they purport to represent.

he revelation that mainstream Jewish organizations like the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco have been secretly funding Canary Mission, a widely-condemned online blacklist of students and professionals critical of Israel, pulls back the curtain on a stunning abuse of the trust and esteem placed on these groups by the Jewish communities they purport to represent.

It also speaks to a deep crisis within the US Jewish community, where unflinching support for even the worst acts of the Israeli government and its supporters from some of the community’s most mainstream organizations comes at the cost of Jewish anti-racist values and those who uphold them.

As a Jew of Color from the San Francisco Bay Area who is both active in my community and publicly critical of Israel, I’ve received everything from racist harassment to rape threats following targeting by Canary Mission.

For me, the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco’s funding of this racist blacklist represents a deep and personal betrayal.

Continue reading “In funding Canary Mission, Jewish federation betrayed us”

Since the Forward first reported on the grant supporting Canary Mission, left-wing Jewish groups have criticized the San Francisco federation and the Diller Foundation.

By Josh Nathan-Kazis | Forward | Oct 3, 2018

‘Respected Jewish communal funders should not be supporting an organization whose entire purpose is to intimidate and harass pro-Palestinian students. As Hillel leaders have pointed out, Canary Mission’s tactics do not help Israel or Jewish students, but only backfire and reinforce the belief that Israel and pro-Israel students cannot tolerate dissent.’
— Rabbi Jill Jacobs, executive director of the rabbinic human rights group T’ruah

The Jewish federation that the Forward exposed Wednesday as bankrolling the online blacklist Canary Mission now says it will no longer support the site.

In a statement, the Jewish Community Federation of San Fransisco acknowledged that the Helen Diller Family Foundation, which it controls, made a $100,000 grant in 2016 to support the blacklist site, which targets students who criticize Israel.

Canary Mission has posted more than a thousand political dossiers on undergraduates. The dossiers are intended to hurt students’ job prospects, and have been used in interrogations by Israeli border officials.

Continue reading “Jewish federation will no longer fund Canary Mission”

Mainstream American Jewish leaders have claimed not to know who funds Canary Mission. As it turns out, a big chunk of the money came from within their own ranks.

By Josh Nathan-Kazis | Forward | Oct 3, 2018

‘[Canary Mission] threatens the security of student activists, as well as create a toxic atmosphere of fear and paranoia among fellow students, thus infringing upon students’ ability to freely express their opinions.’
— Student Senate Resolution, UC Davis

One of the largest Jewish charities in the US has been secretly funding a shadowy online blacklist targeting college students who criticize Israel.

For three years, a website called Canary Mission has spread fear among undergraduate activists, posting more than a thousand political dossiers on student supporters of Palestinian rights. The dossiers are meant to harm students’ job prospects, and have been used in interrogations by Israeli security officials.

At the same time, the website has gone to great lengths to hide the digital and financial trail connecting it to its donors and staff. Registered through a secrecy service, the site is untraceable.

Now, for the first time, the Forward has definitively identified a major donor to Canary Mission. It is a foundation controlled by the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, a major Jewish charity with an annual budget of over $100 million.

Continue reading “Revealed: Canary Mission blacklist is secretly bankrolled by major Jewish federation”

The World Bank says the economic and social situation in Gaza has been declining for over a decade but has deteriorated exponentially in recent months and has reached a critical point.

By Joe Catron | Mint Press News | Oct 4, 2018

‘Between starving to death and living humiliated and oppressed on the one hand and struggling for a better life, for freedom and independence, on the other, many choose to fight back and, if need be, die trying.’
— Refaat Alareer, a literature professor at the Islamic University of Gaza

As the Great March of Return roared past its half-year anniversary last Friday, it also seemed to reach levels of resistance and repression not seen in months.

The escalation aims to “put more pressure on the Israeli occupation authorities, hoping they meet the protesters’ demands — lifting the siege and recognizing the right to return,” a spokesperson for the Hamas movement told MintPress News.

Every Friday since March 30, the demonstration has mobilized thousands of Palestinians to a military barrier erected by Israel around the Gaza Strip.

Protesting both an 11-year closure of the Palestinian enclave imposed by Israel and Egypt, and Israel’s ongoing refusal to allow millions of Palestinian refugees — including two-thirds of the Gaza Strip’s population — to return to homes from which they were ethnically cleansed by Zionist and Israeli forces starting in December 1947, demonstrators have braved the tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and live gunfire of Israeli troops.

Many have died from it, with 176 losing their lives to Israeli fire between March 30 and September 22, according to the World Health Organization.

During the same period, 20,833 were injured — including 10,762 requiring hospitalization, 5,048 struck by live bullets, and 1,200 needing reconstructive surgery on wounded limbs.

Continue reading “With little left to lose, Gaza’s Great March of Return protesters ramp up their resistance”